GabordiBlog

Sunday exclusive: Small-town shooting story that begs to be told

2010-10-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Sunday exclusive: Small-town shooting story that begs to be told

Posted 10/21/2010 2:11 PM EDT on tallahassee.com

This is a different kind of story for us. It takes place in Jasper, in rural Hamilton County, about halfway between Jacksonville and Tallahassee, somewhat outside our normal coverage area. Because of that, we wrestled with whether it was our story to tell when we were contacted by Lenny Joeris’ mother, Betsy James of Eastpoint.

Joeris was accused of shooting his wife, Lorrie, to death. She was a beloved fourth-grade teacher whose secret “other” life became public knowledge in her death and provided what law enforcement believes is the motive for murder.

In an interview at the Hamilton County Jail Lenny told our reporter, Jennifer Portman, the shooting was an accident. The details he told Portman of how it happened were different than what he told investigators. The story goes in multiple directions from there, and I’ll leave it to Portman to fill you in on the rest on Sunday.

But with no daily newspaper covering Hamilton regularly, we decided if we didn’t tell this story it might not get told, and that, simply, would be wrong. It is a story that just begs to be published and it will be Sunday exclusively in the Tallahassee Democrat and on Tallahassee.com.

To see the videos, go to http://www.youtube.com/TDOdotcom

Vote early and often for TLCASC

Help us help Tallahassee-Leon County Animal Services Center win up to $125,000. Go to www.votetosavelives.org to vote for TLCASC today and every day through Oct. 31. For more information of adoptions, contact the shelter at 891-2950 or visit the TLCASC website at http://www.talgov.com/animals/.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com. You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook but you have to request to be my friend.

What to do if your candidate really is a dog? Vote for TLCASC

2010-10-20T05:07:00.000-07:00

What to do if your candidate really is a dog? Vote for TLCASC

Posted 10/20/2010 6:00 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Voting is underway and, say, you just found out that your candidate is a dog – or a cat, for that matter. What are you going to do?

Go ahead and vote anyway – for the Tallahassee-Leon County Animal Services Center. The local shelter is competing against other shelters across the country in the national $125,000 ASPCA Challenge. They can win grants one of two ways:

· By getting the most pets a new home with good families the TLCASC could win a $100,000 grant.

· Or it could get $25,000 by getting the most votes in a community engagement/awareness effort. Visit www.votetosavelives.org to vote.

As of midnight Wednesday, our shelter was in second place, slipping behind the Kansas Humane Society. To help, I voted for us twice this morning, one vote per e-mail address per day is allowed. Hey, dead people in Chicago helped elect John F. Kennedy president. It’s OK.

More important than voting, however, are the dogs and cats at the shelter. The TLCASC has set a goal of reaching 1,200 adoptions by the end of the month to try to win the top prize. But in any case, as of yesterday, TLCASC was 211 adoptions short of qualifying for a prize. We can do this!

For more on how to help:

http://bit.ly/aKZKwe

Politics Live at 10 today: Too much courthouse or too much politics?

2010-10-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Politics Live at 10 today: Too much courthouse or too much politics?

Posted 10/19/2010 5:14 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Politics Live shows at 10 a.m. today on Tallahassee.com. Only it’s not live because of a scheduling conflict I have this morning.

It was recorded Monday when 1^st District Court of Appeal Chief Judge Paul Hawkes visited the Tallahassee Democrat for more than an hour, sitting down with Florida Capital News editor Paul Flemming and I for the show and then with the editorial board.

What it lacks in "live" we hope to make up for in interesting and lively.

Last week, CFO Alex Sink, the Democratic Party nominee for governor, released an audit that concluded the $49 million 1^st DCA building nearing completion near SouthWood in southeast Tallahassee was out of control and skirted rules without breaking the law.

Speaking of Hawkes, Sink said the project is “an outrageous example of an overactive judge who was lobbying the Legislature and then became, in effect, the personal contract manager to build something outrageous like this building full of 20 miles of mahogany, private facilities for judges, a 120,000-square-foot building to house 120 people.”

Republican Mike Haridopolos, the incoming Senate president, cited Sink’s audit in calling for the resignation of Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South.

Hawkes also has been the subject of a campaign to get voters to vote no on his retention to the bench.

For more on this

http://bit.ly/amHW9U

'Funny' Rubio sends message on Arnold's endorsement

2010-10-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

'Funny' Rubio sends message on Arnold's endorsement

Posted 10/13/2010 8:14 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

OK, so maybe the guy the pollsters say cannot lose in the U.S. Senate race has a sense of humor after all, despite what some of the reporters who cover Florida politics say. Marco Rubio is smart, articulate and focused, yes. But funny -- as in telling jokes -- funny?

Who knew?

Maybe his ever-widening lead over Gov. Charlie Crist and Congressman Kendrick Meek has Rubio just so giddy and a little silly.

The former Florida House Speaker responded quickly – if just a little wittily – to word that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, had endorsed Crist, a former Republican running as an independent against Rubio and Meek.

Schwarzenegger sent out a Tweet Tuesday saying: “I endorse Gov @charliecristfl for Senate. Great leader, works with both parties, and our country needs someone like him in DC right now.”

If you are counting, that’s 137 characters. Perhaps he’ll be back with the other three. (Get it? It’s from Arnold’s famous line, “I’ll be back.”)

And that lame attempt at humor is a great segue to Rubio’s press release, which also seemed to try just a little too hard to not take the govinator’s endorsement too seriously. (Remember Arnold's film “Terminator”? Well, it’s a play on words: govinator, “Terminator”.)

For more on this blog, click on this link:

http://bit.ly/bwi4Es

Politics live promo

2010-10-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

Time for straight talk on commission race

2010-10-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Time for straight talk on commission race

Posted 10/11/2010 8:04 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

For those of you who post on my blog, send me e-mails or write letters to the editor about my columns, let me offer this piece of advice: It’s useless to try to psychoanalyze me; there is just not that much there.

Some of you already realize that, I’m sure. For the rest, oh, go ahead and scoff. But you are trying to read way too much into what I write. By the time I finish reading what some of you write about what I wrote, I don’t like myself – or am at least very conflicted.

Did you know, for instance, that in my blog about political candidates and negative campaigning resulting in too much whining that was published in the Sunday Democrat that I committed “the fallacy of false equivalency. It is the phenomenon of pretending to stand above the fray to criticize ‘both sides’ where only one side is guilty of the sin in question.”

Wow, who knew I was that clever? No one at my house.

For more on this topic, go to:

http://bit.ly/bzfJ44

Don't ask, I won't tell

2010-10-08T05:51:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Don't ask, I won't tell

Posted 10/8/2010 8:26 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

I’ve come to realize that I have a very serious personality defect. There might be others – more than one – but I've just come to realize this one is a defect. Most people are not so direct or rude, it turns out.

Here it is: When people ask me a question, I answer it directly.

You would think this is not a problem, but it is. I’m not good at sugar coating.

These are approximations of real conversations:

“Do you like my new hair style?” I was asked. No, no I don’t, I replied.

“Why won’t you play my boy at shortstop (second base, catcher, third, pitcher – it has happened at all positions),” the irate parent asked. Because he’s not very good there, I responded.

“Don’t you think news should be free?” the caller asked. No, I said, but that black Mustang convertible I’ve had my eye on should be.

“Do you think I should run for (such and such) office?” No, I don’t think you are qualified, I answered.

“Are you suggesting that I’m not honest?” a local politician asked. Me: Yes, that seems to be the case.

“Do you think I’m cheating your players,” the umpire demanded. No, sir. I just think you are not very good (I might have said horrible instead of “not very good” – I just don’t remember).

What I don’t know is whether it is a defect I acquired as a newspaper editor or a personality trait that helped me become a newspaper editor. I know this, though: it helps keep down conflicts on my calendar. Not a lot of people invite me over the house.

I’ve never understood why people ask questions for which they are unprepared to hear the answer.

For the complete blog:

http://bit.ly/9LUKz0

1st DCA building: Too much money or just too much politics?

2010-10-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

1st DCA building: Too much money or just too much politics?

Posted 10/7/2010 10:20 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

It’s the most talked about new building in Tallahassee since, well, since the Apalachee built the Council House and its mere presence must be as impactful to the “scene-scape” of modern Tallahassee as that enormous center was more than 500 years earlier.

This week, our Florida Capital News editor, Paul Flemming, looks at the new 1^st District Court of Appeal building, and the politics that have erupted around it.

At $49 million, is it really too expensive and too grandiose or is it just a convenient whipping post for the ugliness of the current campaigns?

If the courthouse's existence is a testament to how things get done in political Tallahassee, just how did it get done?

You can also find the interviews on this link on our YouTube channel.

If you want my vote, quit whining

2010-10-06T05:54:00.001-07:00

Posted 10/6/2010 6:24 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

I don’t know who is getting paid how much to advise political candidates these days but allow me to say they are overpaid. My political science degree seems a waste of money. All the science in politics in this campaign comes down to this:

1. Attack the other person’s character, wife or husband (or lack thereof) and religion (or lack thereof).

2. Deny that you are now or ever will run a negative campaign, and become indignant at the mere suggestion.

3. When you get caught being negative, blame your opponent, the media and if necessary your own mother instead of taking responsibility for what you have said and done.

4. Whine a lot about being a victim.

In the end, the politicians have turned the high calling of public service into a high stakes middle school game of smearing each other. I, for one, am tired of it, and I said so yesterday during Politics Live, our new 10-minute a week live-streaming show on Tallahassee.com. The show is available on this link.

This week, we featured an interview with Cliff Thaell and Nick Maddox. If you missed it, it opened with me telling them both pointedly that I might not vote for either one of them.

Afterwards, Thaell said he was disappointed with the tone and questions of the interview, that he had come prepared to talk about budget and other issues.

Hell, I said, why start now?

So far, neither of them has talked about anything much except the other guy’s flaws – and make no mistake, that’s what their advisors are telling them to do. They care more about winning than they do democracy or public service. They simply cannot help themselves.

Go out and talk about some of the “issues” in the campaign and I’ll ask questions about them. But right now, it’s hard to get passed what Thaell called “the most negative campaign we’ve ever seen at the local level.” But, of course, he takes no responsibility for that, blaming Maddox.

Good grief. Just listen to yourself talk.

Take the issue of a member of the Democratic Party, Jon Ausman, making fliers that appeared to suggest the party endorsed Maddox and other African-American candidates over white Democrats. The fliers were distributed Sunday at black churches.

Thaell suggested after our show that Maddox might have paid Ausman to distribute the fliers. Then added, “I don’t know.”

So why did you say it, I asked?

Well, he said, he has to defend himself from such tactics. Later, Thaell told a reporter he’s been the victim of “dirty tricks.”

What I told Thaell is this: If I were in the business of giving political advice it would start like this: Run on your record. You’ve got 16 years of things you should be proud to talk about. Why are you talking so much about the other guy?

You’ve had 16 years to accomplish something and to make decisions that have upset some people. That is either your great strength or your weakness.

Former NFL Coach Bill Parcells didn’t want to make excuses for his team of superstars not performing up to expectations.

“You are what your record says you are,” Parcells said.

Let me add this to the whole bunch running for office: Quit whining and run on your record. Then go fire the political advisers telling you anything different. You’ll feel better about yourself in the end.

Live today at 10 a.m.: It's Bob and Jeff with Nick and Cliff

2010-10-05T06:07:00.001-07:00

Posted 10/5/2010 8:32 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Live from Tallahassee, it's Politics Live at 10 a.m. today with me and Jeff Burlew interviewing Cliff Thaell and Nick Maddox. We joke in this video promoting the show. We're not thinking they are really best buds.

But if you've got questions for the commission candidates, post them here or on our Tallahassee.com Facebook page.

PS: I wore the wire glasses to try to not look quite as goofy this week. Elections are serious business and I want to show the proper respect.

Hope to see you at 10 -- well, I hope you see me. If you cannot make it, look for the recorded version later on demand.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com. You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook but you have to request to be my friend.

Not getting too excited over good news on oil spill

2010-05-17T10:04:00.001-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Not getting too excited over good news on oil spill

Posted 5/17/2010 11:43 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

There is good news from the Gulf, although how good the news really is remains to be seen. I’m not really getting too excited yet.

On Sunday, the Unified Area Command – the group charged with coordinating the overall response to the BP oil spill -- said a nearly mile-long tube was inserted into the leak and has begun pumping oil and natural gas onto a surface ship.

This morning, speaking on NBC’s “Today” show, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the tube is collecting about 1,000 barrels per day, or 42,000 gallons, of the oil. That’s about 20 percent of the oil spewing into the Gulf. BP had estimated 210,000 gallons per day were leaking, at least officially.

The pipe is merely 4 inches in diameter, but Suttles told NBC’s Matt Lauer that the pipe might be able to get close to 5,000 gallons per day and that the company was in the process of “ramping up” the use of the pipe as a collection tool.

I listened intently three times to a video of a press conference conducted over the weekend by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry and Suttles. At that point, Suttles was only willing to say the pipe was collecting “some amount” of oil and natural gas. The gas is being burned off on the ship that is collecting the oil. Here is a link to the video of a press conference this weekend.

In the face of tough questioning on a major environmental and economic disaster, Suttles has been the face of calm. He has appeared forthright, but his answers have not provided much information, and certainly very little comfort.

Stopping the incessant flow is one thing; if this works or even slows the flow while a permanent solution is found, thank God for that.

But dealing with the consequences of what is already in the water may be with us for years to come.

A story over the weekend by Tallahassee Democrat and Florida Capital News Bureau Chief Jim Ash compared this spill to one that occurred in 1979 called Ixtoc I. That spill eventually hit across 200 miles of Texas beaches; it continues to result in tar balls turning up along that coast.

Workers have already recovered 6.6 million gallons of oily water and used 580,000 gallons of dispersants to try to break up the oil. Environmentalists and others worry that the fix might have longer lasting detriments than the oil: The impact of the use of the dispersants on the environment is not fully known.

There are some 17,000 workers and some 750 vessels involved in the clean up. Some 1.7 millions of feet of boon have been deployed, with another 1.1 million feet available.

Much of that is dealing with the oil on or near the top of the surface, but the fear right now is a miles-long glob that some are likening to a mushroom cloud. Researchers are worried that it is close to or might have already entered the “loop current.” The Associated Press reported today that “underwater plumes of oil that could poison and suffocate sea life across the food chain, with damage that could endure for a decade or more.”

Some researchers say that the damage could be historically severe if the globs work their way into the Gulf Stream and impact the Florida Keys and the east coast of the nation.

Even with a military-like response, it feels as though we are waging a multiple-front war: the battle on the surface to keep oil off our beaches now and a mainly hidden enemy below the ocean.

How much this enemy can be contained is a matter that only time will tell. Every day that our beaches remain unsoiled is a victory and every day that our fishermen continue to be able to work is a blessing.

Even after the leak itself is capped, our definition of “normal” might have to change. Pristine cannot be pristine once soiled. Locally, fishermen and tourism-related businesses might not survive. For those whose livelihoods have been so impacted, normal may never be normal again.

No amount of cleaning up will change that.

Cutting programs for Florida's kids is bad business

2010-04-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Cutting programs for Florida's kids is bad business

Posted 4/5/2010 8:14 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Lawmakers and other politicians are fond of saying that government should be run like a business, watching expenses and revenues carefully, making sure there is a healthy bottom line.

When it comes time to cut the budget, they say, they must make the hard decisions, comparing their work to that of families trying hard to make ends meet with fewer dollars.

They would have us believe that they run government with the efficiency of a business and balance the budget with the care of a family.

Who do they think they are fooling?

A series of stories this week in the Tallahassee Democrat is examining the status of children across Florida and how they are faring in the Legislature. It is a first step in trying to hold lawmakers and other government officials accountable for their votes on children’s issues, which rarely get this kind of attention in the state media.

After this session, we’ll announce a list of children’s heroes and villains based on how they voted and what issues lawmakers supported.

If government were truly being run as a business, the managers would see the state’s children not as expenses to be cut, but as investments with high rates of return. They would be nurtured as a way to obtain greater future wealth, avoid even bigger future expenses and the best way to grow the bottom line.

If government truly faced the task of cutting with the same care that families do, cutting things for our children would be the last place most moms and dads would go. My mom would have gone hungry herself – and probably did on more than one occasion – rather than send us off to school without proper clothing or the paper and pencils we needed to achieve success. We were poor, but my mom made sure we had our medical needs taken care of.

With infants in this state dying at alarming rates, state lawmakers are considering eliminating Healthy Start programs designed to keep babies alive. House Health Care leader Republican Denise Grimsley, in an interview with our reporter Jim Ash, explained the decision this way: “pregnancy is a choice.”

Excuse me, but it’s not a choice for the child.

Infant mortality rates in Florida are abysmal, especially for black babies. Here is the reality: For every 1,000 babies born in Florida, more than 7 won’t reach their first birthday. For black babies, the infant mortality rate can be as high as 2.5 times the number of white babies.

A choice?

It’s not just Healthy Start under siege in the Legislature; it’s children’s programs in general. Lawmakers have raided children’s trust funds even as cutting funding for our kids’ education and health.

Sen. President Jeff Atwater, who wants to be able to get elected the state’s chief financial officer by telling voters he cut our taxes, suggests children’s programs are no different than any others, and lots of programs are getting cut.

Running government like a business? Study after study has shown that investing in children’s programs upfront saves several times that in the long haul by reducing demands on the health-care system, helping children succeed in school and keeping children out of the juvenile justice system. Businesses that won’t invest in their future end up out of business, but that won’t happen in government.

Meanwhile, children’s advocates complain that they don’t get the kind of access to leadership as the big-money corporate lobbyists.

In October, I facilitated a public forum on issues facing children sponsored by the Children’s Campaign. In closing the session, I said the problem is that parents today tend to focus too much of our time on teaching our children to play nicely and modeling good behavior. Maybe our kids would be better served if we acted up a little, teaching them about their rights to assembly and to redress grievances to our government.

Playing nicely hasn’t gotten children in this state – or their parents – much of anywhere. That is, unless you consider it OK for thousands – one estimate is 17,000 – of children with disabilities to have to wait for state services.

Next week is an opportunity for parents to change the equation: It’s Children’s Week at the Capitol. It’s an opportunity for advocates of children’s issues to let lawmakers know what they think and to allow them to hear firsthand from our kids.

If you support openness, Mr. Mayor, advocate for this bill

2010-03-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

If you support openness, Mr. Mayor, advocate for this bill

Posted 3/29/2010 12:57 PM EDT on tallahassee.com

An open-government bill, SB 1598, passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday containing many, but not all, of the improvements to the law recommended by Gov. Charlie Crist’s Commission on Open Government Reform.

It remains to be seen if a House companion bill, HB 1211, goes anywhere – it has not yet – or if the House will take up a bill on the floor should SB 1598 sponsored by Republican Sen. Paula Dockery pass the Senate.

The current version of the bill, the Open Government Act, still combines the open-meetings law and the public-records law into one act; makes uniform penalties for intentional violations; and limits some of the fees government may charge citizens for accessing, copying and redacting public records.

For example, the bill would allow an agency to charge for personnel time only if a request to inspect or copy public records requires more than 30 minutes of an employee’s time. It also does not allow for charging the public to redact personal records comingled with public records.

The bill has faced opposition from the Florida League of Cities, which is headed by Tallahassee Mayor John Marks. Provisions in the bill that would have reduced the costs agencies may pass along to citizens were opposed by the League. Marks called that an “unfunded mandate.”

To overcome the League’s objections, some of provisions opposed by the League have been removed.

Rebecca O’Hara, legislative director for the League, said the League is “comfortable with the direction” of the bill.

“The issues that remain are fairly minor,” she said, primarily having to do with the awarding of attorney fees.

O’Hara said she would be more comfortable if the bill allowed judges to use their discretion on whether a plaintiff who successfully sued for violations of the law must awarded fees. She would also like to see agencies allowed to recover their costs in frivolous lawsuits brought against government.

Changes in the bill were made to make it more palatable to the League, although O’Hara said the League did not testify in committee.

In a column last week in the Tallahassee Democrat, Mayor Marks implied that I had erred in my reporting of the facts in a previous blog on the topic, although he gave no examples of factual errors.

The mayor also said he was “a strong advocate for transparency and openness in government, and I have more than proven this commitment to Florida's Sunshine Laws,” although he gave no examples of his advocacy, either.

The current bill is an improvement over what we have now, but I think it falls short of hitting the mark.

As proposed by the governor’s commission, this bill would have given all citizens – the poor as well as the wealthy – an equal ability to have access to government records. Some local governments and agencies have charged outrageous fees that make access to their government’s records a reality only to those who can afford it.

I disagree that this is an "unfunded mandate."

Calling it that is akin to calling the 24^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution an “unfunded mandate.” For those of you who weren’t alive then – or missed that lesson in history – until that amendment was ratified by 38 states in 1964, the poll tax – a fee assessed on citizens wishing to vote – was a way Southern states made it difficult for poor people, primarily blacks, to vote when the Reconstruction era ended.

Don’t think for a second that all governments today welcome openness and access by citizens, although all will say they do. This is not ancient history. Here’s a particularly egregious example, but I could have picked from dozens of other incidents:

A year ago, a Tallahassee Democrat reporter who happens to be African-American, requested a public record from a small county government in the Big Bend area. After being asked numerous questions on her motivation for requesting the document, which by itself is illegal, she was followed to her car where her license plate was written down and run through law enforcement checks, presumably to see if she was wanted for a crime.

These days it is as nearly as popular for politicians to call themselves “advocates for transparency” as it is for businesses to say they are “green.” No one wants to be viewed as being against either.

But you have to do more than simply follow the law to be an advocate for transparency. Some Tallahassee residents, for example, would question just how transparent our city government was when the city commission quietly passed “deferred compensation” increasing pay to commissioners five years ago or when it took away citizens’ right to vote in a special election last year.

I look at it this way: Which would have cost taxpayers more, the city paying a greater share of the cost of open access to government or the last five years of deferred compensation? Tell me, which way would truly be in the best interest of city taxpayers?

If the mayor wants to be seen as an advocate for open government and easy citizen access to government, he needs to get onboard in pushing for Senate and House passage of the latest version of the bill, and he would push the League to do the same.

That's what an advocate for open government would do.

Let's leave well enough alone on Fla. 911 tapes

2010-03-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

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Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Let's leave well enough alone on 911 tapes

Posted 3/3/2010 12:26 PM EST on tallahassee.com

With due respect, this is just dumb.

The House Governmental Affairs Policy Committee is considering a proposal that would exempt 911 tapes from Florida's public-records laws, although it would provide a transcript after 60 days.

Talk about unwarranted government intrusion.

One little question: Why?

We asked my Facebook friends and fans of Tallahassee.com what they thought of the proposal.

Inane was a common answer.

Natalie Napier spoke for a lot of people when she said this: “Well duh! The last thing I'm thinking about when my house is on fire is it becoming a public record.”

Are there some circumstances, such as domestic violence, when knowing the general public might find out could cause someone to be inhibited? Maybe, but those are few and far between. And if that’s the goal, propose that and let’s debate that. But don’t put a blanket on all instances.

If the legislators truly want to make government more efficient let’s start with focusing on fixing what’s broken, and not breaking what’s fixed. Florida’s open-records laws work well. Don’t mess them up.
You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com. You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook but you have to request to be my friend.

My quarter says Gov. Crist won't talk about these things

2010-03-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

My quarter says the governor won't talk about these things

Posted 3/1/2010 8:49 AM EST on tallahassee.com

The start of our second season in Tallahassee – in between football seasons -- the legislative session officially begins this week with the State of the State address Tuesday, the last such address of Gov. Charlie Crist, a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Here’s a quarter that says the governor will exude optimism about the future of Florida, while acknowledging these are tough times. That same quarter says he will tell us the state’s economists are projecting growth – for the first time in years – but that the worst is not over.

Here’s another quarter that he doesn’t mention that our children are falling further behind and that more and more of their parents can’t even so much as look for work – even if it could be found – because wait lists for quality child care centers grow longer and longer.

In April, during Children’s Week at the Capitol, the Tallahassee Democrat will publish a comprehensive look at the state of Florida’s children, while watching closely how lawmakers vote on bills to either help or hurt our kids.

Nothing could have been a more pointed reminder for state workers than the sudden announced closing of the Gwen Cherry Child Development Center, which shuts down April 30. Sponsored by the state Department of Education, the center served the families of state employees for 25 years.

If money is the issue, parents offered to increase their fees. So it isn’t money.

What then?

Parents were given six weeks to find new arrangements and, guess what? Child care is already in short supply. The Early Learning Coalition of the Big Bend has a long wait list to get into child care facilities.

In a letter from Whole Child Leon to Crist, WCL’s steering committee said:

“One of Whole Child’s goals is to increase the number of quality child-care sources in our community, with a particular emphasis on encouraging and incentivizing employers to provide site-based care for their employees. As the largest employer in our community, state government should be expanding these options, and the State Department of Education should be leading the way.”

Here’s another quarter that says the governor won’t talk about the growing numbers of homeless, including children, living on our streets or in temporary shelters, resulting in part from the Florida unemployment rate hitting a record 12 percent.

What happens next, when the federal stimulus money runs out? Have we used it to generate economic growth or a Band Aid® to cover the hurt?

Will the governor include in the State of the State the number of people our universities have sent packing, people of talent and intellect, the type of economic-development generating talent we need now and well into the future?

In a column Sunday in the Tallahassee Democrat, Senate President Jeff Atwater said the focus of the Legislature should not be on how to increase revenues as it tries to balance the budget. He said we need to be “investing in programs that improve our job market and create new jobs.”

A quick translation of that says: Our children, our universities and schools, the homeless and others who might be considered the weakest links in our societal chain are in even deeper muck. It is an admission that three years of consecutive budget cuts already worth $7 billion has not helped stimulate the economy or fix what is broken, yet leadership is looking at $3 billion more this session. It is a further admission that all we have done is talk of investing in job growth, not actually creating jobs.

I’ve got one more quarter that says the governor won’t say that, either.

Commission, this is bad policy and bad politics

2010-02-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Commission, this is bad policy and bad politics

Posted 2/15/2010 6:59 AM EST on tallahassee.com

It would be easy enough for me to go on a rant about what is clearly an attack not only on the right to freedom of speech but also the right to petition the government “for a redress of grievances.”

But I won’t. If anyone does, I understand how difficult it is for you to sit quietly while others attack what you stand for and, especially when they do so in a manner that you believe is abusive and unfair. It happens to me almost every day, and it will happen again after this is published.

Someone, maybe several someones, will Zing!, e-mail or otherwise seek to publish their views, which will be just the opposite of mine. Some will get published, others not – but their viewpoints will still be expressed. What to do? Speak up to defend your position, but don't lash out and don't limit access to the podium.

The message of this should not be lost on the Tallahassee City Commission or the city’s attorney, Jim English: In politics and the media, we work for the people – even those who so disagree with us they want us replaced – and not the other way around.

When they address us, it is our privilege and their right. English seems to make a habit of getting these things backward. He recently talked about limiting citizens' “privilege” to address the commission.

Furthermore, sending e-mails and letters to public employees does not abuse the system; it is exactly the system the Founding Fathers envisioned. Even if they didn’t know about the Internet, they knew about strongly held opinions; they went to war over theirs.

So, before I start to rant on the topic – which would be easy for me to do – let me switch gears by asking members of the City Commission this: What are you thinking? Politically, I mean?

Not only is your reaction bad public policy, it's bad politics, too. You have taken one person’s 15 seconds of fame and turned it into a month of Sundays by lashing out. Stay on this same path, and you will turn it into a full term on the commission.

Let me be specific: Erwin Jackson, who is running against recently appointed Commissioner Gil Ziffer, has raised a couple important points, notably on deferred compensation. That’s an issue on which most of us, I suspect, would agree with Jackson. The commission shouldn’t have done what it did five years ago, and it should better understand the public outcry against it now.

That has had nothing to do with Ziffer, except this: The commission is starting to look more and more like a privileged private club instead of an elected body of the people. From where I sit out here in the masses, this is what it looks like:

First vote yourself an increase in compensation in what can only be described as a cleverly quiet manner

Then change the charter to appoint a member rather than allow the people to decide

And now your attorney is looking at ways to limit the speech of those who disagree with you.

Perhaps instead of worrying about and lamenting Jackson’s behavior, the commission should take a hard look at its own. With commissioners' help, that one trick pony is starting to look more and more like Secretariat.

Whatever this is, don't call it justice

2010-02-11T06:11:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Whatever this is, don't call it justice

Posted 2/11/2010 8:20 AM EST on tallahassee.com

This is what happens when documents are closed to the public and those closest to the information are ordered to be quiet or face contempt-of-court charges. I don’t know what to call it, but it’s not my idea of justice.

Andrea Green, who by multiple accounts is the man who shot Rachel Hoffman multiple times – including in the head, even shooting through her arms that she used to try to protect herself – was allowed to plead no contest to second-degree murder. He will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Deneilo Bradshaw, who watched as the murder took place and benefited from robbing Hoffman and killing her, is found guilty of first-degree murder and robbery after being convicted by a jury. He will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Some will say Hoffman was a less-than-sympathetic victim, and perhaps that is so. She was a recent Florida State University graduate with a history of dealing pot before she went to work for Tallahassee police as a confidential informant.

Still it is hard to justify why defendant Bradshaw – the one with the smaller role in her murder – gets first-degree murder and defendant Green – whose history of violent crimes makes your skin crawl – gets second-degree murder.

It gets harder to justify when you think of that night, with Hoffman – still alive and, as I said, trying to protect herself with her arms and hands against bullets – being shot time and again by Green. At his hearing, Green smiled and joked throughout.

To try to shed some light on all of this, the Tallahassee Democrat is now – still – pursuing the release of all evidence in the two cases, as well as previously undisclosed transmissions and text messages between police and Hoffman the night she was killed.

After Green entered his plea in court Wednesday, his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Ines Suber, said: "Obviously, it's a victory (for) the defense." The goal, she said, was to eliminate the death penalty.

It is the same reason Suber sought to shut out public scrutiny in Franklin County, where a grandmother faces murder charges in the death of her 5-year-old grandson. It is easier to cut the best deal in secrecy. It has nothing to do with real justice.

And the prosecutor in the Green case, Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman, said, the state was not surprised by Green’s plea of no contest to second-degree murder.

"It's something we've been working on for a long time," she said.

All of which raises the question of whether the need for secrecy in this case really had anything to do with either justice or a fair trial, since it seems everyone was working to avoid any trial at all. If it was about justice, how could anyone agree that Bradshaw deserves a harsher outcome than Green? And if it was about a fair trial, well, let there be one instead of working “for a long time” on how to avoid one.

Maybe the need for secrecy really was about keeping the public silent while deals were being made. Maybe it is just about winning and losing, with justice an old-fashioned consideration of the naïve who still believe in it.

Maybe, in the end, winning and losing is justice these days. And maybe State Attorney Willie Meggs hit the nail solidly on the head by saying it really doesn’t matter in the end.

“What we are trying to seek is justice. It's hard to say if anybody likes this or dislikes it. If we had gotten a sentence of death, it's not like Rachel's going to come back."

True enough, but let’s call it winning and losing and playing the game how it must be played so your side wins. Let’s just not call it justice.

Tebow and free speech Part II

2010-02-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Tebow and free speech Part II

Posted 2/4/2010 9:12 AM EST on tallahassee.com

My post on freedom-of-speech issues in the controversy over Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl commercial generated a lot of discussion. Some people question how 30 seconds of air time that costs more than $2.5 million can be considered “free speech.”

So did the Supreme Court for a long time. After all, many scholars believe the Founding Fathers were thinking about political speech, not commercials to get you buy toothpaste. (OK, maybe toothpaste didn’t come into broad use for a few more years. Maybe a nice set of George Washington wooden teeth would have been a better example.)

But all that changed in the last part of the 20^th century when the courts offered greater protections under the First Amendment to commercial speech.

Still, that shouldn’t matter here. Nor should CBS’ inconsistency in deciding which ads it accepts. That’s for CBS to decide and for the rest of us to criticize. Advertisers are buying the right to express their viewpoint or pitch their product; they are buying access to CBS’ viewers. The difference in that seems to be lost on some people. But they are two totally different things.

Tebow’s ad – if it is anything like what we’re being told – is closer to political speech than commercial speech anyway. That the ultra conservative group Focus on the Family is paying for access to CBS’ viewers shouldn’t matter.

Critics say CBS refused an ad from the United Church of Christ in support of gay and lesbian membership in the UCC in 2004 on the grounds that it was too controversial.

Don’t you just hate it when the “liberal media” goes all Rush Limbaugh on us? Come on, CBS, what are we supposed to do with all those “liberal media” bumper stickers?

Personally, if I were king of CBS, I would accept them all. I’d just keep raising the price of the ad spots to weed out those who really don’t want to reach my audience. Hey, this is such a totally American event, a day to eat, drink and celebrate who and what we are: couch potatoes. What’s so wrong with a little political free speech and a lot of capitalism added in?

Does CBS really think that a little political controversy is going to stop Americans from watching football? I highly doubt it, but that’s for CBS to decide. Until I’m the king.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com.

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On politics and Tweeting and my aching head

2010-01-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

On politics and Tweeting and my aching head

Posted 1/28/2010 6:32 AM EST on tallahassee.com

After tweeting my way through The Associated Press Legislative Preview yesterday, let me say this: Good Lord, my head hurt.

Please understand what this event is. The Legislative Preview is an annual conference hosted by the AP that brings together the political leadership of the state to talk about what's going to happen during the upcoming session. It's like a series of press confrences one after another after another after another.

It draws lots of media to the 22nd Floor of the Capitol Building for a discussion of the big issues.

Or that's the intent. I decided when I read today's Tallahassee Democrat that what I really pay Bill Cotterell to do is to translate, not report. For the life of me, what I heard was the language of Gobbledygook, which Cotterell -- God bless him -- managed somehow to put into English.

At one point, I actually started tracking each time a politician found a new way to not say a darn thing. Some for instances:

In explaining why Florida must further reduce spending on important state programs, Senate President Jeff Atwater spoke at length and eloquently on the federal budget.

Asked if he agrees with Gov. Charlie Crist’s rosy projections for state revenues, House Speaker Larry Cretul smiled and said: The reality is we deal with the budget numbers we have.

At one point he began talking about the film "Seabiscuit," which I never saw but learned from the Internet is “True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.”

I tweeted ????

At another point just Grrr.

Then this: “Not sure why (he’s saying this).”

Let me repeat that: ???? then Grrr followed by not sure why.

That about sums up my feelings.

My head hurt.

Oh, there were a few things that made sense.

I understood completely what it meant when President Atwater said he was not sure if they could get throughout the budget process this year without reducing the state’s workforce or cutting wages. If you are a state worker, you know that that means, too. You’re getting slapped. Again.

Not that the Democrats were any better or more clear, except for one sentence by Democratic Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson. Asked what he thought of Crist’s proposal to cut corporate income taxes, the senator from Tallahassee said: “It’s insane.”

That's plain enough. It is almost shocking when someone says aloud exactly what he’s thinking in those situations, if only because it almost never happens.

House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands said that some tax cuts and some tax increases are good and it is a matter of who we are taking money from and who we are giving it to and that he’s proud of the work of Floridians in Haiti and the media does an important job in keeping a watch on government and there needs to be transparency in the budget process and he’s a small businessman and knows they need a tax break.

Or at least that’s how it sounded to me: just one big long run-on sentence of scattered thoughts.

But it could have been just me, I don’t know: My head was really hurting by then.

And it wasn’t just them hurting my head; it was us, too -- that is the media.

First up was Crist who was charming as usual. Next was former House Speaker Marco Rubio, who was straightforward and on point, as usual. He was late getting there though, saying he was locked out of the 22nd floor elevator and that only a few people have a key to that elevator.

The governor said he was not there as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, but as governor, although he is both. Rubio said he was there not to answer questions about the Florida Legislature or state issues, but about his campaign for the U.S. Senate, though he got both.

Following me so far?

They behaved exactly as expected.

But the tone of the two sessions was different and I blame the media for that. I thought we were too cozy with Crist, too accepting of his dodges. Not so much with Rubio. It’s just the comparison to the two sessions left me feeling we cut Crist a break.

I heard lots of explanations on why the media would treat these two differently. Rubio is now the frontrunner in the race and he has to expect tougher questions; Rubio’s personality makes things feel combative; and Rubio is dismissive of questions he doesn’t want to answer.

All true, but none a good reason.

And Crist, well, he’s just hard to dislike. At one point a reporter sneezed off to the side. Without missing a beat in midsentence he looked over and said “God bless you” and continued on. It was so smooth and natural that I’d bet half of the crowd missed, but not the sneezer. He calls reporters by name. Knows where they are from and asks about their family.

He is genuinely a nice man and gets treated that way in return, which is something I think we have to think about as the campaign moves forward.

On Rubio’s personality, well, let's just say he'd better hope nice guys really do finish last. He's not a bad person either, and in full disclosure my daughter is engaged to marry a relative of Rubio's wife, a cousin, I think.

It's just that he's different and dismissive of questions he doesn't want to answer. Plus, he uses big words to talk about things like “fundamental issues of our time” and “untenable economics.”

He’d better learn that with just 140 characters, that’s a lot to Tweet.

And enough to make my head hurt.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com.

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These Tallahassee stories aren't newsworthy?

2010-01-25T05:08:00.001-08:00

These Tallahassee stories aren't newsworthy?

Posted 1/25/2010 6:44 AM EST on tallahassee.com

A local official had a “private” conversation last week with a Tallahassee Democrat employee, saying he was disappointed – as were others, he said – with the newspaper’s coverage of the city.

Too much attention is being given to issues that put the community in a negative light, things like the Rachel Hoffman murder, homelessness and the commission voting itself an increase in compensation through deferred retirement pay. These issues are not newsworthy, he suggested.

He said he wants to come over to the Democrat and talk to me about it. The newspaper should be highlighting more good things.

Yes, I think it is time we have a talk. But let’s do it publicly, and let’s start right now.

There are many wonderful things happening in our community, and we do our best to highlight those things. Our pages are filled with “good news” every day.

Life is good in Tallahassee for those whose lives are good.

But a newspaper worth the paper it is written on cannot be so dismissive of those for whom life isn’t so good. Nor can it stop being a watchdog on government activity. We’re not the public-relations arm of city government.

If a newspaper won’t question authority, who will? You certainly won’t get independent analytical conversation or debate on tough issues from the city-owned TV channel, WCOT.

It’s been my experience in 30 years as a journalist that the most newsworthy stories from the public’s viewpoint are the ones the politicians don’t want us to write about.

Let’s take some of the issues brought up to our reporter as not being newsworthy:

On deferred compensation: The commission votes to enrich its own members and city staff – without a vote of the public – to the tune of $1 million since the vote was taken five years ago, as reported in the Sunday Tallahassee Democrat – and that is not newsworthy? I wonder how city employees who have lost their jobs feel about that.

We were told the city could not afford to follow the charter to conduct an election to replace a vacant commission seat without cutting more jobs. Now we know why.

Look, all of this occurred at a public meeting. It was under-reported in the media, maybe missed altogether. Legal? Probably. Ethical? I don’t know. Moral? It seems to me that if you are going to take a million dollars out of the public’s pocket over five years, you want to make darn sure they know about it.

On homelessness: I spoke with a homeless man last week – a good and honest man, I might add. For much of his life, things were “normal.” Circumstances have conspired to have him living on our streets. He is 47 years old and desperately needs a job. With temperatures at life-threatening lows, he was handed a mat and told to sleep outside, even with beds available inside.

“This is how they do people,” he said, shaking his head. “This is how they do people. This is how they do people.”

Not newsworthy? I guess that depends of which side of the door you’re on when it’s cold outside.

Employers: If you need a man with character and integrity, call me. I’ll introduce you.

On Hoffman: Where do I begin? After all that we have learned about the city’s behavior in the death of this young woman, I’m simply amazed that this was brought up as not being newsworthy.

After all this, nearly two years of news stories by media outlets across the nation, changed state law and police procedures and a pending lawsuit, this is not newsworthy?

Doing these stories is just a matter of the newspaper trying to sell papers to fix declining circulation, our reporter was told. Instead we are only hurting our own reputation and losing readers.

But it’s not that people aren’t reading us that creates the worry, is it? If so, rest easy. The reality is our readership is strong; combined with Tallahassee.com, our readership is growing.

But come now, it’s not the newspaper’s reputation you are really worried about, is it?

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com.

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No one can tell you what's the right thing to do

2010-01-18T07:00:00.001-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

No one can tell you what's the right thing to do

Posted 1/18/2010 8:44 AM EST on tallahassee.com

The question has been bothering me for almost a week.

“Where does it end?” the caller asked.

He had just read my blog on how our leaders – especially governmental – failed to act decisively, leaving homeless people out in the bitter and life-threatening cold. With so many needs in these tough times, he said, where does the public obligation to help end?

That day, the earth shifted in Haiti, crushing – and now starving – tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people.

Where, indeed, does it end?

The answer, I guess, is a matter of priorities and faith. No one person can answer that question for another. As city leaders and local community agencies gather tomorrow to assess how to better respond to a local cold crisis, I hope that they will consider both priorities and faith. I hope that they will consider not only “where does it end,” but also how we begin.

The Rev. Michael Foley, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, noticed a shining crucifix among the rubble shown in our front-page photograph from Haiti. He took that as a symbol, as if God were saying, “I’m still here,” and calling on the world to help.

As the richest nation in the history of man, he said, it is a matter of duty and faith to do everything we can.

The Rev. Pat Robertson saw things differently. He called the earthquake a “blessing in disguise” in one moment and later repeated what he called a “true story” about how the Haitian revolutionaries made a deal with devil while attempting to throw the French out.

“And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' They kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”

Robertson said that last week while attempting to raise money for Haitian relief efforts on his show, “The 700 Club.”

They had turned away from God, he said, and this is their punishment. Our obligation was to turn Haitians back to God.

What then was that crucifix doing in the rubble? Did God somehow save only the Christians – or even certain kinds of Christians – and not others?

According to the CIA’s The World Factbook, about 96 percent of Haitians are either Catholic or Protestant, with about 10 percent Baptists. The same report says more than half of the population also practices voodoo.

It would be easy enough to ridicule Robertson for repeating as “true story” something for which there seems to be no historic basis. It has been told and retold, especially in the last couple of decades to explain why Haiti – the poorest country in our hemisphere with infant-mortality rates of more than 50 percent – has been allowed to suffer.

It proves again that the bigger the lie the more the people will believe it.

Does thinking that there are theological and not simply geological reasons for the horror that has occurred just 700 miles off the Florida coast make it easier to turn away when there are tough choices to be made about where our resources go?

But Robertson did what we all do, or at least what many of us do. I hear it in the reactions to news reports all the time.

When I wrote about our community leadership’s failure to respond to the needs of the freezing people sleeping on the streets, one person said, “Don’t you think some of these people could help themselves if they wanted to?”

Another called to say, “Well, whose fault is it they are on the street? It’s not mine.”

Like Robertson, we judge the victim before considering the need.

Where does it end?

I guess when it’s over, when either the need for help or our capacity to help is gone. Until then, maybe it never ends. But everyone has their own moral compass. Knowing what is the right thing to do is something for each person to decide for him or herself.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com.

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Finding Christmas on Bald Point beach

2009-12-21T06:25:00.001-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Finding Christmas on Bald Point beach

Posted 12/21/2009 8:43 AM EST on tallahassee.com

It’s been hard for me to get into the mood for Christmas this year, which I will forever remember as a year of losses and sad news.

Jobs were lost. Joblessness in Florida is at 11.5 percent, with more than a million people out of work, some my former colleagues in an industry particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. The Florida joblessness rate is the highest since May 1975 and less than half a point lower than the state’s record. Beyond the numbers are the people and families so devastated in this economy.

Sadly, we watched for the past few weeks live on Tallahassee.com as a jury considered whether a young man, Deneilo Bradshaw, would be sentenced to death for his role in the murder of Rachel Hoffman. Bradshaw’s two children will grow up with their daddy in prison without the possibility of parole, pending appeal. And Hoffman’s parents will be deprived of seeing their daughter’s wedding or getting to hold their grandchildren.

Lives were lost. We’ll not forget easily the death of 26-year-old Curtis Brown, a bystander gunned down as violence erupted at 4 a.m. in the Circle K/McDonald's parking lot on Lake Bradford Road.

Nor will we easily overcome the loss of another good man, Tallahassee Police Officer Michael Saunders, who was cruelly killed by a hit-and-run driver while the veteran officer was off-duty.

And, as all families mourn their own losses, at the Tallahassee Democrat, we continue to grieve the sudden death of our friend and co-worker, Steve Ellis, and the stories he will no longer tell us.

It has been a tough year all around.

Yet, walking with my son along the white sandy beach at Bald Point State Park during low tide this weekend, I was reminded of the ebb and flow that is life’s natural process.

I thought about the joy of quiet moments like that one with my children, those already grown and those who soon will be. I thought about the birth of a co-worker’s grandbaby, the marriage of two others and the planned weddings of others and of my daughter.

Watching the birds hunt for food in the shallow pools along the beach, it was a reminder that for every Bobby Bowden and T.K. Wetherell who blesses us with their presence and then moves on, there is a Jimbo Fisher and an Eric Barron ready for a chance at greatness.

I began to think about the dozens of readers who have written about our partnership with the Christmas Connection, the joy they find in helping other families and about the good people at the Democrat and in other businesses throughout the region who work tirelessly for good causes.

I thought about my daughter Jessica and the love so many readers and others – some complete strangers – shared earlier this year when she was badly injured after falling at school.

Somehow, walking along that nearly empty beach, it began to feel a lot like Christmas.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com.

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It is time to release public documents in Hoffman case

2009-12-15T06:15:00.001-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

It is time to release public documents in Hoffman case

Posted 12/15/2009 8:25 AM EST on tallahassee.com

With the exception of defending your country in battle, I cannot think of a higher calling for a citizen than to serve on a jury. So I awoke this morning thinking of those on the jury in the Deneilo Bradshaw murder trial, the awesome task they face in this most extraordinary democratic process.

Sometime today, it will fall to those ordinary citizens to decide guilt or innocence, a decision that could ultimately lead to Bradshaw’s execution.

Bradshaw is one of two young men accused of killing police confidential informant Rachel Hoffman. In what might be a first for this region, Tallahassee.com – using footage from a pool camera provided by WCTV – has provided gavel-to-gavel coverage and will do so again when the closing arguments are made this morning. Click this link to watch video.

Bradshaw’s entire defense may come down to this one statement by his attorney, Chuck Hobbs:

“The defense's case is going to be short and sweet: that Andrea Green shot and killed Rachel Hoffman and that Andrea Green threatened to kill Deneilo Bradshaw if he did not cooperate.”

In other words, he seems to be saying, Bradshaw does not deserve to die, that he was an unwilling accomplice.

Green faces trial in October. His attorneys tried unsuccessfully to have Bradshaw’s trial closed to the public. They also had argued media coverage of the brutal killing would make the seating of a jury impossible in Leon County. That has proven to be untrue as the court and the respective attorneys had no trouble quickly doing so.

The Tallahassee Democrat and Hoffman’s parents have been fighting for the release of public documents in Hoffman’s murder for more than a year, battling defense and prosecuting attorneys. The court had allowed only a limited release of documents until the jury is sequestered.

Leon County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Dekker ordered on Aug. 15, 2008, that “as soon as a jury is sequestered, all sealed discovery, regardless of admissibility, will be released for full public and media use.”

The Democrat, through our attorneys, has notified the State Attorney’s Office, of our intention to seek compliance with the court’s order.

No one will know exactly what goes on in that jury room, only the results of whatever discussions occur. But no one can argue the process has been unfair.

It does no one any good to withhold the release of public records any longer.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com.

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Print Exclusive examines new multimillion-dollar dispatch system

2009-12-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Print Exclusive examines new multimillion-dollar dispatch system

Posted 12/10/2009 8:50 AM EST on tallahassee.com

I’m sitting at my desk writing as I listen in the background to emergency services in Washington, D.C., dispatch police to an incident in the northeast section of the district.

With little effort, I can switch to New Orleans, San Diego or Fort Myers. Occasionally, I’ll listen in to what is happening in a small town in eastern Connecticut where I began my daily newspaper reporting career 30 years ago.

Emergency-service radio traffic in all of these places and dozens more around the country is live on the Internet in real time. In some places, there are options available to get scanner traffic sent to a cell phone or Blackberry, in addition to being able to hear it the old-fashioned way over a relatively cheap scanner radio.

In Leon County, however, local governments have just invested millions of dollars in shutting the public out.

Our Sunday Print Exclusive story this week by reporter David Saez will address how the digital and encrypted radio system is different than the old system, where the money to pay for it came from and how it improves communications among local agencies and serves the public.

It will also address the decline in public access to information from its government and whether communications could be improved without shutting the public out.

To be clear: No one is violating any Florida laws by taking scanner traffic out of the public space. Such communication is not covered by the state’s progressive Sunshine Laws. Media lawyers and government-access advocates say that this is an issue that might have to be resolved at the legislative level.

And to be fair, efforts are being made to quickly provide much of the same information in text format to the media. In reality, some officials are going above and beyond what is required by the law, which is nothing at all. Frankly, I think it is just one of those things no one expected to come up when the laws were passed.

Still, my question is why shut out the public?

We always oppose it when government reduces citizens’ access to what their government is doing, and this is a very significant step in the wrong direction for citizen access. This is not a matter of citizens being voyeuristic, but having a legitimate interest in public safety in their community.

It seems to me that the security issues some have raised about open-air or Internet scanner traffic are no higher in Tallahassee than in Washington, D.C. It just seems ironic to me that we are spending taxpayers’ money to reduce taxpayers’ access to their government’s activities. Although I’ve asked, I have yet to hear a single good reason that explains why the public must be shut out to accomplish better communications.

We think this week’s Print Exclusive raises important questions but also shines a light on the very positive aspects of the new dispatch system, as well. We hope you’ll pick up a copy of the Sunday Tallahassee Democrat and then go to Tallahassee.com to debate the issues raised on the summary of the print story. You will also be able to purchase a single-copy e-edition of the Tallahassee Democrat on this link Sunday.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com.

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TMI for me in Tiger's sex scandal

2009-12-07T05:53:00.001-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

TMI for me in Tiger's sex scandal

Posted 12/7/2009 8:22 AM EST on tallahassee.com

Once again, we see the price of worshipping the wrong kinds of heroes in our society.

Tiger Woods is simply the best golfer on the planet – or was. And because of that, we placed him high on the mountaintop and made him one of the richest men in the world.

Now he is publicly acknowledging “transgressions” that he says have harmed his marriage and family, and he's apologizing for hurting the people he cares most about.

As for the rest of us, he says, he should not have to apologize or admit his sins at a press conference. I agree. We shouldn't care that much.

But his comments set off a media-feeding frenzy, which, frankly, I find embarrassing. It’s ridiculous the way we are chasing down every detail – except that the public, by and large, demands the dirt. The more dirt, the better the public likes it. Admit it. You know it's true.

So the media is digging and the whole thing is spiraling out of control.

That’s what we do to superstars these days; we knock them off their pedestals.

A blogger for the San Francisco Chronicle says the media actually have lost track of the exact number of women now linked sexually to Tiger Woods.

Many counts are now up to six different women who I suspect have at least six different lawyers. Some are having press conferences. Photos of the women, in various stages of dress, are all over the Internet, along with their bios and ambitions. One of their moms is busy telling the world her daughter is a "good girl."

We haven’t had a sex scandal this big or juicy since Bill Clinton. The Florida Highway Patrol called a press conference just to announce they were writing a $194 ticket in Tiger’s one-car accident that set off this speculation.

Tiger is bigger than the president, affair-wise, when you think about it. Financially, at least, he has more at stake.

As leader of the free world and head of the world’s most powerful military and economy, Clinton made about $200,000, although the president’s pay was doubled to $400,000 in 2001.

Tiger, on the other hand, earned $110 million in the last year, according to Forbes magazine’s annual report on the world’s highest paid athletes. Tiger was No. 1 in the world.

Almost all of that money came from sources other than the professional tour, Forbes said. Golf earnings were about $5 million. Remember that Tiger was out last year for eight months after surgery to repair a torn knee ligament.

Much of the rest came from Pepsi, Nike, AT&T and other endorsements, meaning golf is now a side job and that these companies believe that Tiger can convince us to buy their products.

Apparently, Tiger took Nike’s “Just do it” slogan to heart.

Faced with his affair with an intern, the president lied. Tiger simply said it was none of our business, which, of course, it’s not, except that he is making so much money because his partners believe the public believes in him.

They aren't paying him for his great golf swing.

Tiger was made by the media to be something beyond a great golfer. And now the media seems intent on bringing him down.

If you want to find them, details of his prenuptial agreements with his distressed wife Elin are on the Web, too. The staid Associated Press, the chronicler of all important news, tells us she has renegotiated her prenuptial with Tiger so that she is entitled to $80 million. That’s $75 million for his transgressions – hopefully that’s all inclusive, and not a per affair charge – plus a $5 million one-time lump sum. I use the word lump advisedly in this case.

Every detail of this sordid affair is out there, somewhere, on the Web and in mainstream media.

Now that’s just great reporting.

But we've missed the real story: Turns out, Tiger was nobody special, after all; he’s just a great golfer.

Oh, and P.S., please stop sending me photo-shopped pictures and videos of Tiger and Elin. I’ve got the whole family album.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn or Blogger.com

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No one wanted to see the Bowden years end this way

2009-12-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

No one wanted to see the Bowden years end this way
Posted 12/3/2009 10:40 AM EST on tallahassee.com

I’ve listened as the national commentators have berated Florida State University for how it has handled Bobby Bowden’s retirement, and I've grown more angry each day. One of my favorite guys, ESPN’s Dick Vitale, who I think of as almost like being my Italian uncle, was the worst.

“It’s embarrassing,” he said in his typical high-pitched voice. “What they did to him is embarrassing.”

Then he went off on Jimbo Fisher, saying he has been right there with Coach Bowden as the program declined.

“What makes him the answer to their problems?” Vitale asked.

I have watched as an outsider who has a front-row seat to what has happened with the FSU football program for the past five years. Just factually, the decline was well under way before Fisher got here. But that is beside the point. In fact, I was totally lost on his point, unless someone was suggesting Coach Bowden’s retirement was Fisher’s fault. But who would say that?

The people who live and work here, who know and love FSU, who depend on it in one way or another for how they earn their livings, educate their children or just for being so important to the fabric of daily life, are brokenhearted about how Bowden’s career ended.

No one has been more affected than FSU President T.K. Wetherell, a former player under Coach Bowden when Bowden coached receivers in the 1960s. Wetherell, who has already announced his own retirement, is the man who had to tell Coach it was over.

People close to Wetherell told me they were concerned about how the stress of dealing with this was affecting his health. No one wants to tell Dad or Mom they can’t drive anymore, but sometimes you just have to. It sure doesn’t mean you’ve stopped loving them.

People here do love Coach, not just for what he has done on the field, but for who he is and what he has meant to our community.

Here is a story that illustrates my point, based on an e-mail today from Mike Olivella, who moved into his home two doors down from the Bowdens in 1995.

“Our son was 14 years old at the time, and very early the next morning (Sunday), as my wife and I slept, our son crawled out of bed, put on his rollerblades and skated over to Bowden's house.

“He knocked on the door holding a baseball cap and Coach opened the door, barefoot, dressed in boxer shorts and a white T-shirt. He looked down and said, ‘Can I help you, son?’

“Mikey replied that we had just moved in a couple of doors down. ‘Those things you're wearing look fast,’ Bowden said. Mikey told him they were.

“ ‘You want that hat signed?’ asked Coach.

“ ‘Yes, sir. It's for my girlfriend back home. Her name is Kate,' said Mikey.

“ ‘Well, let's see if we can't do that for her,’ as he took the hat, signed it and then handed it back. ‘Now you be careful on those things,' said Coach as he shook Mikey's hand and smiled. “He turned, went back inside his home.”

Make no mistake that this episode of FSU history has been gut-wrenching for many thousands of us who have simply watched it being played out.

It really didn’t have to end this way, but I think a comment made last night during the FSU men’s basketball game by announcer John Saunders – another of my favorites – provides some insight.

“I know Coach Bowden wanted one more year, and I know that because I know his son, Terry, pretty well,” Saunders said.

Bingo, I said. That explains a lot.

In recent months, another group of people who feel they have done a lot for FSU over the years, the alumni who have contributed huge amounts of money, have grown more and more restless and vocal about how they have been portrayed as “ungrateful” by members of the Bowden family and their friends.

Along with empty seats in a stadium that simply rocked with excitement a few years ago and what appeared to be a growingly dysfunctional coaching staff, the alumni and boosters were simply tired of the whispers and the very public accusations of disloyalty.

No one who gives hundreds of dollars, let alone thousands and millions, wants to be called ungrateful.

And they were starting to speak up about it.

One such meeting with Wetherell and alumni and supporters occurred last weekend. I’m sure Wetherell knew what he was going to say to Coach before that meeting, but the message – I’m told – was clear: The end had come.

And so it has, and as with most public breakups of a family, it has been terribly sad for this community.

Maybe it has been embarrassing, too, Dickey V., but not for the reasons you suggest.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn, Blogger.com or on my blog on Friendster.

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Saying goodbye to Steve Ellis

2009-11-23T07:36:00.001-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Saying goodbye to Steve Ellis

Posted 11/23/2009 9:31 AM EST on tallahassee.com

When journalists don’t know what else to do, we write. That’s what I’m doing now: writing to help cope with the loss of our senior sports writer Steve Ellis, who died Thursday after suffering a heart attack.

It's my way of saying goodbye.

Don’t worry; I’m not going to get all gooey. That would not be fitting. Steve was as genuine a guy as you get. A classic sports writer in the Oscar Madison sense. It was his job, but it was also his passion.

But I thought I’d tell you my view on the man behind the byline, the person you have been reading for close to 30 years.

On a freezing day, Steve was the type of guy who’d insist you take his jacket.

I was not surprised to learn he was an Eagle Scout or that he counted that among his most important achievements.

One day soon after I got to town, Steve called me up and said to meet him down at Doak Campbell Stadium. He wanted to make sure I got properly indoctrinated. I soon found myself sitting across a desk from the legendary Bobby Bowden, just chatting and sharing stories about mutual friends from Huntington, W.Va.

Steve took me – and my baseball fanatic son, who was then 11 – for a tour of the baseball facilities, where we met Mike Martin and most of the players.

Coaches like Bobby Bowden and Mike Martin weren’t always happy with Steve because of what he would write, but they sure did respect him.

Bowden, when he learned of Steve’s death, said he was kind of like a son to him. The more I thought about that, the more right it seems. Steve was like the son who grows up with a mind of his own, and – while always respecting the old man – sometimes has to tell him things he doesn’t want to hear.

Like when he wrote that he thought it was time for Bowden to step down. It hurt Steve to write that. But he did because he felt it was the right thing to say, not because he wanted to, but because he believed it had to be said by him, the guy who has covered the program for nearly 30 years.

When Steve finally had to miss work because of his heart attack, he wanted us to put that in the newspaper so that the people who criticized him for writing that column on Bowden didn't think he had gotten fired for it. I told him someone would have to fire me before anyone could fire him.

The strangest thing now is picking up a copy of the newspaper and not seeing his byline. A colleague reminded me the other day that I once remarked that Steve had 57 bylined stories in a month in which FSU had only one game.

Anytime I asked him a question about something, he’d write a story on it. He figured if the boss had a question, readers might, too. He just couldn’t stop himself.

He was simply amazing. The story about him making his wife send in his last story via e-mail when he had the heart attack before he’d go the emergency room is true.

When I announced his death to our newsroom staff, I called everyone together. I couldn’t look at their faces. I said: “Steve didn’t make it.” Then after a long pause I said: “I’m sorry, I have no other words.”

That his powerful voice on FSU athletics is now silenced is the most stunning part of all.

He simply loved what he did and appreciated that a million guys would trade jobs with him in a second.

We’ll hire someone to cover his beat.

No one will ever take his place.

…

It seems so appropriate to announce – with deep gratitude to Florida State and the FSU Foundation – that a scholarship fund in Steve Ellis' name for the benefit of prospective sports journalists is being established at the FSU Foundation. The address for making contributions is:

Steve Ellis Memorial Scholarship Fund

Florida State University Foundation

2010 Levy Avenue

Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2739

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Boyd stuck in the middle with no one

2009-11-16T05:47:00.001-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Boyd stuck in the middle with no one

Posted 11/16/2009 6:45 AM EST on tallahassee.com

Congressman Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, likes to take his electronic voting card out of his wallet in situations like this and say it belongs to the people of the 2^nd District.

He did that at a meeting of the Tallahassee Democrat’s editorial board recently and again last week at a public forum he hosted on health-care reform.

“It's your card,” he said. “You asked me to take it to Washington and use it in your interests.”

But which “you” is he talking to?

Not a simple question. The problem is that his district is huge and diverse. In approximate terms, it stretches from Live Oak in the east to Bay County in the west, from Cross City in the south to Marianna in the north.

The largest population center is Tallahassee, arguably one of the most liberal Democrat communities in the state. Yet much of the rest of the district is a mix of conservative Democrats and conservative Republicans.

The net result is Boyd tries to portray himself as a pragmatic middle-of-the-roader, a proud Blue Dog, a fiscally conservative Democrat. He’s not opposed to social programs, as long as he knows how we’re paying for it.

The problem is the middle is nowhere anymore, not in politically polarized America. Politics is becoming more like football: You are either on the team, or you're the enemy. There is no middle. This is not to say he won’t win re-election, incumbency is still very powerful. But he’s a target for zealots on both sides.

For some in his own party, Boyd is too conservative and hasn’t stood with President Obama enough. State Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, who is running against Boyd in the primary, says it is time to put a “real” Democrat in Congress from this area.

Lawson has been running a quiet campaign, almost as if he’s allowing Boyd to wallow in his “middleness.”And he’s been doing just that, running around the district – he’s conducted 14 or so of these public hearings – only to get jeered, taunted and attacked.

That’s in part because he’s not conservative enough for people like Diane Berryhill.

She was at his last public forum in Tallahassee and taunted him for voting with his party on other initiatives of President Obama.

“We gave you that card,” she said. “Are you going to represent us (on health care), or are you going to vote on the basis of some lobbyists, or your party or what Nancy Pelosi is twisting your arm to do?”

But which “us” is she talking about?

Berryhill certainly doesn’t speak for much of Leon County, where the forum was held. Leon voted 91,747 to 55,705 for Obama. Democrats far outnumber Republicans here.

Florida overall voted for Obama, too. Boyd’s district was typically divided – the rural areas voting for McCain.

So – again – who is the “us” that Berryhill was speaking for, that she demands that Boyd represent?

Berryhill and those at the forum who interrupted Boyd while he answered questions, jeering and hooting at the congressman, represent the politics of the loudest voice, hoping to sound larger than they actually are.

But that’s where Boyd has placed himself, trying to ride that middle rail between conservatives and liberals. Unfortunately for him, there are trains coming down the track his way from both directions.

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New feature gets answers to your questions

2009-11-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

New feature gets answers to your questions

Posted 11/12/2009 8:27 AM EST on tallahassee.com

Hey, did you hear the one about the national TV anchor who was fired because he tried to air a piece that was critical of the health-care bill?

Well, that rumor was untrue.

OK, what about the one that says the bill requires senior citizens to get counseling on euthanasia every five years?

That, too, was untrue.

What about the one about the suspected shooter at Fort Hood? Did you hear Nidal Hasan was a member of President Obama's Homeland Security transition team?

Once again, this is a false – but at least interesting – rumor.

According to About.com, Hasan did, in fact, participate in a project of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute that discussed the president’s homeland security transition team, but this was an academic exercise and not at all connected to the actual transition team.

The Internet and radio talk show air waves, it seems, are full of these kinds of rumors, most of which can be proven false or true relatively easily with a little research. With blogs, forums, message boards and e-mail to contend with, lots of stuff is flying around.

But who has the time to figure out what’s real or just to get an answer to a question about what’s in a particular piece of legislation?

We do.

A new feature planned for the Sunday newspaper can help get answers to your questions on events in the news, whether on local or national issues. It doesn’t have to be about a rumor. If you are just curious, for example, about a vote that happened in Congress or the Legislature or if you want more information about who supported what at the last commission meeting, just ask and we’ll try to find out.

We can’t answer every question, but we’ll get to as many as possible online, and each week we’ll feature one of the best questions in the newspaper. The topic for the upcoming week is health care, so we'll give preference to answering questions related to that topic.

To ask your question all you have to do is e-mail us at answers@tallahassee.com, post a question on the TallyAnswers blog on Tallahassee.com (click on link to go there now) or call (850) 599-2233.

Applause for Applause!

The good news is that people have lots of good news to share. Applause!, Zing!’s nicer sibling, is expanding to two days. While always available on Tallahassee.com, it now will publish in print on Wednesdays and Sundays.

By the way, Zing! and Applause! get along just fine, for those of you who have asked about that. They have a typical sibling rivalry relationship, of course, but so far, no major bumps or bruises to speak of.

You can also send your Applause! items to applause@tallahassee.com or go the TallyApplause page to send a private message. You have to become a friend of TallyApplause to do that.

Click on this link to go there now .

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TPD needs to fix information bottlenecks now

2009-11-04T05:53:00.001-08:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

TPD needs to fix information bottlenecks now

Posted 11/4/2009 8:14 AM EST on tallahassee.com

A 10-year-old boy was waiting for a ride home after football practice at Gilchrist Elementary School sometime between 6:30 and 7 Monday night when a man in a large white pickup truck pulled up and asked him if he needed a ride.

His coach walked up and the vehicle drove off. Tallahassee police were notified and they reached the coach later that evening, about 8:30, according to Chief Dennis Jones.

The boy, who Jones said was not interviewed by Tallahassee police until the next day, said the man was a stranger. More details, such as they are, are in our story in today’s edition of the Tallahassee Democrat and on Tallahassee.com.

Yesterday afternoon, I e-mailed Chief Jones to ask what took so long and why police failed to notify the public immediately. In fact, no one was told – not even school officials – until late morning the next day.

Meanwhile, of course, e-mails and Internet messages were flying, some – again, of course – contained wrong information. Most were angry at not having more official information.

I don’t know much about police work, but I do respect the work officers do. This much, though, is more than abundantly clear – by this case and others day after day – is Tallahassee police don’t know much about how, when or why to provide public information. The only difference is this case jumped up and bit them.

If not for the persistence of the child’s grandmother in making sure there was some public notice, who knows when police would have told the public about an incident the public needed to know about right away if not sooner.

In my conversation with Chief Jones, he took responsibility for delaying the release of information. Police, he said, didn’t want to put out bad information. For all they knew, he said, this could have been – and still could be – an innocent misunderstanding.

The problem with that is that it could just as likely have been a deliberate attempt to abduct a child, too. Strangers with good intentions simply don’t drive up to little boys and offer a ride home and then drive off quickly when an adult walks up. That’s just not how thing work, at not from this parent and coach’s perspective.

But police didn’t know all that because they reacted to the incident much too slowly. If they interviewed the coach at 8:30 p.m. why did it take until the next day to reach the little boy and his parents?

And in the ensuing 15 hours or so after the incident another child could have been taken or harmed. Meanwhile, the driver of the vehicle, described as a white male with spiked hair, escaped public notice.

It is good to see the chief step up and take responsibility for the delay in reporting the incident, but the problem is it is not an isolated case. It is the culture and how the department behaves routinely.

While a policy that seems so intent on controlling information that it sometimes cuts it off was never wise, these days it simply destine for failure. E-mails become blog posts and Tweets that wind up on message board on Tallahassee.com with links to Facebook.

The only question is whether police what grandma to tell the public what it needs to know or if they want to do so themselves. Misinformation is the result of the absence of real information. An informed public is not a panicked public, but an alert public.

And to not even inform school officials – let alone parents – of the incident immediately is beyond inexcusable; it is simply irresponsible.

It is well passed time for city officials to take a close look at how police operate in informing the public and take corrective steps before something much worse results.

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Why read these scary football picks?

2009-10-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Why read these scary football picks?

Posted 10/30/2009 9:04 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Happy Halloween. Hope you get more treats than tricks, unless you are North Carolina State or Morgan State’s football teams. If that’s the case, here’s hoping you have a ghoulish playing against our Seminoles and Rattlers.

For you new and aspiring writers out there, notice the smooth transition from Halloween to football?

Pretty scary, huh.

OK, so in our Game Day section tomorrow, look for Mickey Andrews as the cover story. This man has had a huge impact on football and particularly Florida State football. The skip to the panelist’s picks column where you will find I have been paying more attention to oil-drilling issues than football. At 49-31, I’m close to being in last place, so why are you reading this? I’m just asking, as a journalist.

In the ACC, the big questions are: Does anyone want to win the conference and when someone does will anyone care? Three are now three teams with just one conference loss: Georgia Tech, Virginia and (are you kidding?) Duke. Virginia Tech has gone from National Title picture to fourth place in the ACC Coastal Division in two weeks.

OK, this week's weak picks and why:

N.C. State at FSU: Have you ever seen me pick against Florida State? Maybe if they play the New England Patriots that’ll happen. But listen, the defense has to be better or the ’Noles can lose to anyone. In three of FSU’s four losses they have put 99 points on the board. Don’t forget to Tweet #Noles during the game. That’s get into our live game blog conversation. Send along pictures, too. FSU.

FAMU at Morgan State: Yeah, I have picked against the Rattlers before, but not lately (fortunately, the Miami game wasn’t on the list). At 5-2, Florida A&M can’t afford to let down against 5-2 Morgan State. They won’t. And yes, we’ll have a live interactive blog during the FAMU game, too. So Tweet #famufb during the game. FAMU.

Georgia at Florida: Nothing to talk about. Florida is just better. Georgia is just 4-3. Florida.

Mississippi at Auburn: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, my mom said to pick the home team. Auburn.

Duke at Virginia: Went to the ACC Web site and basketball was on the front. The Blue Devils could win this Halloween battle, but I’m not buying Duke at 4-3 overall. Virginia.

Kansas at Texas Tech: I don’t care who wins, but had to pick someone so I’m going with the home team. Texas Tech.

Mississippi State vs. Kentucky: Again, don’t much care. But I had a reader I nicknamed Burt once in Huntington, W.Va., who was annoying about UK coverage. So this is in honor of his memory. Mississippi State.

South Carolina at Tennessee: I don’t remember why, but I just like South Carolina better, I guess. Again, I’m not sure why I should care about this one. South Carolina.

Texas at Oklahoma State: Now this one I do care about. I’m predicting an Alabama vs. Texas national championship game, Of course, if that comes about, I won’t care who wins. Texas.

USC at Oregon: Revenge is mine sayeth the Lord. But it’s not USC’s, not this year. Either one of these teams could play for the National Title if the aforementioned titans slip, along with Florida, Iowa and even Georgia Tech. Can’t see the powers that be letting Boise State or even Cincinnati get there. But anyway, USC’s chances end here and now. Oregon.

AND ONE OTHER THING

Check out Applause!, Zing!’s kinder sibling.

Applause! will be on Tallahassee.com every day for readers to post the nice things. Then on Wednesdays each week, we’ll pick the best of the good and publish an Applause! column in the Tallahassee Democrat’s print edition.

You can also send your Applause! items to applause@tallahassee.com or go the TallyApplause home page to send a private message. You have to become a friend of TallyApplause to do that.

Click on this link to go there now.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

A matter of humanity on a football field

2009-10-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

A matter of humanity on a football field

Posted 10/27/2009 8:12 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

I saw something on a football field over the weekend that I had never seen before and hope never to have to see again: players from two teams meeting at midfield, shaking hands and hugging prior to the kickoff of a huge game.

Tom Hanks says there is no crying in baseball, but I’m sure there was a tear or two on Mountaineer Field as players and coaches from the University of Connecticut and West Virginia University, Big East conference rivals, shared a moment. I know there were in the stands as fans of the rival schools embraced.

Two days later, the UConn football team faced a challenge far greater than football: They helped bury a teammate, cornerback Jasper Howard, of South Florida.

On game day, fans wearing the Huskies’ blue and Mountaineers’ gold stood side by side holding up signs with Howard’s No. 6, cheering as UConn players ran out of the tunnel past a poster saying: “Today we are all Huskies.” The poster was signed by WVU players, coaches, members of the band, cheerleaders and fans.

Howard, 20, was fatally stabbed in the abdomen during an altercation on campus in Storrs, Conn., about 12:30 a.m. Oct. 18 after a party at the student union, according to reports. No one has been charged in his death.

That was just a few hours after the junior had a career-high 11 tackles in a 38-25 win over Louisville. He was the defensive star, forcing a fumble as Louisville was about to score with UConn up 21-13 in the third quarter.

“He was someone who had a tremendous heart … he was on track for greatness," said Huskies head coach Randy Edsall during Howard’s funeral service. “He was going to graduate. He was going to have his degree. He was doing everything to make himself the best student, the best person and the best athlete that he could be.”

It was Edsall who was called to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford to identify Howard’s body. He then had to call Howard’s mother, JoAngila, and inform his players.

At a press conference later that day, Edsall told reporters:

“There's nothing written in the manual in how to deal with these situations. But I know this — this is a strong team, with strong leadership, and we'll get through it.”

Less than a week later, fans of both teams were standing and cheering as the Huskies ran onto the field at West Virginia. The TV broadcasters could barely speak as teammates carried his No. 6 jersey and helmet onto the field.

Somehow, they managed to play football after all that. Less than 10 seconds into the game, UConn was down 7-0 as the opening kickoff was run back for a touchdown. The Huskies battled back, but lost 28-24.

But as far as I was concerned, they won in a rout. More to the point, all of sports won. This was a meaningful game in the Big East standings and both teams’ post-season chances. It was more meaningful in the game of life.

Two teams: One showing courage they probably didn’t know they had; the other showing class and respect. Both provided a fleeting reminder to football fans everywhere what sports and games ought to be about.

Even post-game UConn blogs lacked the usual vitriol that comes of a tough loss. One WVU fan, posting on a Hartford Courant blog summed it up:

“UConn should be very proud of the men that took the field in Morgantown on Saturday. They showed a lot of heart and represented both their university and Jaz very well. … We feel your pain. May God bless UConn and give you all comfort to carry on. As the poster at the UConn entrance stated, ‘Today we are all Huskies’.”

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

Debate hopes to shed light on Fla. drilling discussion

2009-10-26T08:06:00.001-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Debate hopes to shed light on drilling discussion

Posted 10/26/2009 8:54 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Sitting in an editorial-board meeting one day a couple months ago, proponents of lifting a ban on offshore oil and natural-gas exploration off Florida’s coast said: “We have the facts on our side.”

It was not the first time I heard them say that, but this time I heard myself replying: “Prove it.”

Since then, a group of us have been working to create a public forum – a debate, really – that will allow those who support and oppose lifting the ban to place their facts in front of the people of Florida for review.

The Florida Forum on Energy Exploration will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the studios of WFSU-TV in Tallahassee, sponsored by Florida State University, the Tallahassee Democrat and other Gannett Florida newspapers and TV stations.

It will be broadcast live on 4FSU and by anyone who wants to pick it up. It will be streamed live on the Internet on Tallahassee.com, as well as affiliated Gannett Web sites in Pensacola, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Tampa and Melbourne.

Questions will be taken live from the studio and Internet audiences through a live interactive blog. Internet viewers can also Tweet questions or comments by using the hashtag #flaforum. Questions may also be e-mailed in advance to FlaForumtallahassee.com.

Legislative leaders Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, agreed to be on hand as part of the forum to ask questions and listen.

It will all be moderated by Paul Flemming, state editor for Gannett Florida. Flemming heads the Florida Capital Bureau that serves the Democrat, Florida Today, The News-Press of Fort Myers, the Pensacola News-Journal, First Coast News in Jacksonville and 10Connects (WTSP) in Tampa-St. Pete.

I must tell you, negotiations on setting up this forum made my head hurt, but in the end I think the discussion will be valuable to the public and the Legislature.

In what is surely an understatement, the issues are complicated and debate is occurring at a time when our economy is suffering. Whatever Florida does, Cuba and others are working on their own plans to extend energy exploration.

Florida State University, which has been instrumental in helping to make this possible, will follow the forum with an academic symposium on campus Nov. 2.

A team of reporters and editors from across the state will then use what we learn at the forum, the symposium and in our own news gathering to put together a comprehensive project for publication later this year.

To be clear, there is no doubt going to be a bill at some point for the Legislature to debate on lifting restrictions, whether that will happen in special or regular session remains to be seen. At this point, a special session before the new year seems unlikely. It is not clear what the outcome of the bill will be. (Additional information on the forum is available on this link.)

The idea of this forum is very simply to put all of the best arguments from all sides of this debate into a mixing bowl and see what comes out. Our goal has been to ensure a fair and honest discussion of the issues that are relevant to the debate that will happen on the floor of the Legislature.

I’m not sure anyone will end up proving their points to the satisfaction of everyone, but hopefully everyone will agree all sides got a fair chance to be heard.

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An apology for a Zing!

2009-10-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

An apology for a Zing!

Posted 10/16/2009 8:35 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

A Zing! we published this week that compared the Republican Party to the Taliban should not have been allowed to get into the Tallahassee Democrat.

It’s my job as editor to catch major issues, whether factual errors or just poor judgment. I didn’t select it for publication, but read that page in advance as I do most days and should have caught it. I didn’t, it got published and I apologize for that.

Understand that you only see a fraction of what gets submitted. Other editors go through the files and select which letters, my views and Zing!s we’ll publish. If you ever want to truly witness the deep divide that exists in our community, state and nation, read the unpublished Zing!s sometime.

Which leads me to this point: A Zing! by its nature and definition is supposed to insult someone. That's why I’ve never liked the Zing! column, but most readers do and I got outvoted when I suggested we should drop it.

The Zing! in question should never have made the paper, but many Zing!s are nothing more than insults and rants. As one reader put it, it is sometimes "an outlet for anonymous cowards." This one just was worst than most.

The Urban Dictionary makes the point well. Its No. 1 definition of the word zing is this: “The new term for owned, said after saying something witty to someone in an insulting manner.” It defined "owned" as making a fool of someone else or embarrassing that person.

In this case, by definition, I was zinged, I guess.

I personally got more than a dozen telephone calls. The editorial staff took more. Plus we all got a few e-mails. Most people seemed to accept our apology and acknowledgement that the Zing! was over the top.

Not everyone.

Even after we had apologized, one woman sent this in an e-mail:

“Please tell me what this morning's Zing! comparing the GOP to the Taliban was supposed to accomplish? Are you insane or ignorant or both?”

A man identifying himself only as a local doctor said he was going to urge all of his patients to cancel their subscription. He didn’t say, but I presume his advice is health related. I have great doctors, but I would cancel my doctor if he started telling me what to read and/or think.

My point is, no one believes anyone just makes an honest mistake anymore. That’s all this was, and for allowing this to get published, I apologize.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

Blogging for bloggers

2009-10-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is a blog about blogging with #BGOLLI students learning how to blog.

Jessica's daddy is angry

2009-10-12T06:28:00.001-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Jessica's daddy is angry

Posted 10/12/2009 8:43 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Sometime around noon Thursday, my day, my week and very nearly my entire life changed.

My daughter, Jessica, who has become known to readers of this blog as much for her abilities and courage as her for mental and physical disabilities, was seriously injured after falling in her classroom at Gretchen Everhart School for Exceptional Students.

From the moment my phone rang until we left TMH Saturday afternoon, it was as though someone else was in control of my life. Time moved swiftly and not at all.

Jessica had been in a prone stander, an adaptive device that allows her to stand, something she could not otherwise do. With no ability to or sense of balance, she fell. She landed full force onto the back of her head.

She cannot talk, so she could not yell for help.

She has little control over her muscles, so she could not grab something or brace her fall.

She counts on us for those things, and we weren’t there. Still, I have seen the fall over and over in my head a thousand times since.

Doctors said she suffered an epidural hematoma, at least I think that’s what they said. Frankly, those first few hours what I heard was more like sounds than words, like a dozen musical instruments playing a dozen different sounds all at once, pounding noise into my ears.

What I understood was there was bleeding between the membrane that surrounds the brain and the skull. If the bleeding stopped quickly and the hematoma stayed small, we would avoid surgery. If not, as the blood pushed into the brain, further damage might occur. Then she would have required surgery to drain the blood and might die.

The good news, one doctor explained, was that because she of how she fell on the back of her head, there was a good chance the bleeding was caused by a vein that would relatively quickly stop. I didn’t understand why.

It was all a matter of waiting and watching.

My wife was at the school at the time of Jessica’s accident, as she is many days. On this day she was getting ready for a fund raiser to benefit Gretchen that night. I was the guest speaker. I was working on my speech when the telephone rang.

The irony is that the fund raiser was created as a way to supplement funding for students basic needs, things for which our state seems to think it has higher priorities. My speech would have addressed that. Here is a link to it if you want to read it.

It was to be about how parents need to do more to force lawmakers to make children a priority, things like putting another set of hands back into my daughter’s classroom that would have kept her safe.

Instead, as the fund raiser went on, we were in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, by our daughter’s bed, praying – pleading, to tell the truth – for God to stop the bleeding in our girl’s head.

Many others in our community and beyond prayed for Jessica, too. Jessica’s teacher and many others from Gretchen Everhart were at Jessica’s side often during our three days at TMH. We received dozens and dozens of e-mails, phone calls and messages of support. We are grateful for them all, and especially thank the students and teachers at Trinity Catholic School.

Jessica is home now. By Sunday, she was smiling and happy. She laughed when I told her she just needed to learn to bounce better.

But I can’t help but be angry, too.

I’m angry at every politician that has failed our children by using a vote to repay a campaign contributor or friend instead of properly funding education. I’m angry at those responsible for cutting money that would always have teacher’s aides in classrooms of special needs kids. My anger is aimed at those who think of the needs of our children – all children – as a commodity to be traded for votes and favors.

How in the world do the Ray Sansoms of the world do it? I mean, it is immaterial to me whether he is guilty of a crime or just bad behavior. How do you vote to spend taxpayers’ money for an airplane hangar to benefit a friend while my daughter and her classmates use equipment that is old or inadequate?

How?

How do we even consider buying another building we don’t need right now for government use when we are cutting back on our children’s basic needs?

How?

I’m angry about every wastefully spent tax dollar that meant someone was not there to catch my daughter and break her fall because her too busy teacher had too few hands and was distracted.

Jessica is one tough little lady, tougher than I was, quite honestly. She appears to be on her way to recovery, though we are still watching her closely.

But she still can’t use her voice. She still counts on you and me to do that.

And I’m one angry daddy.

You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be my friend.

On camera or not, red light means stop

2009-10-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

On camera or not, red light means stop

Posted 10/6/2009 8:22 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

I hate to change the subject, but I’ve been trying to write this one for a week. Count me as being in favor of the cameras at traffic lights. I like the idea for a few reasons:

Don’t do the crime if you can’t pay the dime.
Law enforcement officers have better things to do than sitting around waiting for some knucklehead to hurry through a stop light – obviously, a machine can do that.
We need the extra money that will come from more tickets because some people just can’t help themselves.
I’m tired of deciding whether to break the law and go through the light or stop and be slammed into by said above knucklehead who has no intention of stopping, nor does the knucklehead behind him (or her) and sometimes the knucklehead goes, too.

Please don’t give me constitutional-rights arguments. You have the constitutional right to stop when the light turns red. Period.

The argument – and the lawsuits – has to do with tickets being sent to car owners who might or might not be driving the car at the time of the infraction.

That makes as much sense to me as the “dog ate my homework.” Maybe it did, but still no credit in my book.

Or, more to the point, that’s like saying law enforcement should have to tie its hands behind its backs and be blindfolded to catch traffic law violators.

Why?

How about this: What if we just stop when the light turns red, including when making a right turn?

What if we actually yield the right away when there is a yield sign?

What if we stop when a pedestrian is in the crosswalk?

What if we slow down when we see a school bus pulling over to pick up children instead of racing by before the flashing lights come on? (Why? Because you never know what kids are going to do.)

What if we take turns at the circle on Killarney Way?

I know, I’m venting. Got to stop now.

But let’s buy a bunch more cameras.

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Parents need to quit playing nice, start acting out

2009-10-05T08:34:00.001-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Parents need to quit playing nice, start acting out

Posted 10/5/2009 8:20 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

The problem with parents today is that we tend to focus too much of our time on teaching our children to play nicely and modeling good behavior. Maybe our kids would be better served if we acted up a little, teaching them about their rights to assembly and to redress grievances to our government.

One parent, posting on a Web site for families of children with disabilities, told another parent this:

“I hope someone else has a different answer for you, but from what I have experienced, the Med(icaid) Waiver is something you sign up for and then never hear from again. There is a 30-something year waiting list for services. Our children will all be grown before their turn comes up.”

The Medicaid Waiver program provides basic services to the elderly, the mentally ill and persons with disabilities. It is federal funded, but requires a state match.

This week, I’ll be involved with two events I hope you’ll consider attending:

The first is The Children's Campaign's Pasta with a Purpose dinner and town-hall meeting. The dinner is at 4:30 p.m., and the town-hall meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Bethel AME Church, 501 W. Orange Ave. The pasta and admission are free, and the discussion, I hope, will be lively.

The second event is a fundraiser for students at Gretchen Everhart School called “Climb to Success” where I’m the guest speaker. The event is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Los Robles Women’s Club, 1513 Cristobal Drive, Tallahassee. It costs $10 to get in and features light food and a silent auction with excellent items, including a stay at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C., along with other incredible items.

The second event illustrates what the first event is all about. The Gretchen event is an attempt by parents to “meet the needs of students when other funding is not available.” In this case, parents simply want to buy equipment that would allow disabled children to use the pool, which provides incredible therapy. They also would like to build a high school activity area to help students “develop social skills that are appropriate.”

It makes you wonder about how money is available to buy buildings we don’t need and airplane hangars that benefit a politician’s friend, but parents have to hold fundraisers on top of paying taxes to get basic educational equipment for their children.

The Tuesday town-hall meeting will talk about advocacy. But it’s not for professional advocates alone. It’s about hearing from parents and others who love children who think we can do better than cutting funding for the one program we know makes a difference: mentoring students.

The Children’s Campaign Inc. is an organization devoted to making children's issues a legislative priority. It is concerned about issues impacting all children and has held events like this around the state to raise awareness.

The conversation will be about the status of children – all children. The statistics are overwhelming.

For example: There are currently 165,182 children in the state’s school readiness program. Last year, there were 247,349 served. By the end of the fiscal year, that number is likely to be served again.

That would still leave 608,651 children who are eligible based on income and other state requirements without services.

The Children’s Campaign has hosted similar events in other Florida cities with great success. I hope they’ll get a good turnout here, too. The forum will also be Web cast live on Tallahassee.com.

To me, this is not about raising taxes, but investing in children instead of wasting our tax investments on things we can do without.

As a parent, that's a fight worth getting into.

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Harvey article pleases no one

2009-09-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

Bob Gabordi's blog

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

Harvey article pleases no one

Posted 9/28/2009 8:11 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Stories like this one on Wakulla County Sheriff David Harvey seem to please no one.

Our Sunday Print Exclusive story was written after months of checking into Harvey’s financial and legal documents and numerous interviews with legal, real-estate and banking experts. The story showed:

-- That loans to the sheriff and his partners keep being restructured by Wakulla Bank and that the bank is in trouble with state regulators because of that kind of practice.

-- That for whatever reason State Attorney Willie Meggs dismissed, seemingly out of hand, an investigation by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco that concluded he violated the law by owning a business that serves alcohol.

-- That average citizens are afraid to speak out against the sheriff for fear of reprisal.

His supporters claim the newspaper is just stirring things up, trying to “ruin” him.

“If you were being fair you wouldn’t be trying to ruin this guy. It doesn’t matter what you print, though, we have your number and we’ve known Mr. Harvey as a fair and very compassionate person for a lifetime and you can’t change that. So keep on with your slander.”

Harvey critics, though, say the story was “puff” or “fluff” and didn’t go far enough or deep enough.

“I am not sure what the Democrat was trying to accomplish with this article,” one typical post online stated. “It was fluff; (it) started with some interesting points and left them without any substance. … It was like only getting to first base on a date.”

It is as if critics believe they absolutely “know” there is more to this story; no one seems to know what that is, though. And if they do know, they’re not saying, just suggesting. They offer few, if any, facts to back their point of view.

They are angry the newspaper didn’t find the facts to support their suppositions and long-held beliefs.

Harvey has amassed a huge fortune and that alone creates distrust. How could the sheriff of such a small county become – at one point – the richest sheriff in the state?

But Harvey’s “fortune” is on paper; many of his investments have come from “friendly” lenders. Now, in some cases, those loans seem to be trouble for him and the lending institution.

From his opponents’ point of view, this article told them what they already knew: that no matter what Harvey does, someone will cover for him – his employees, the state attorney, the local bank, even the governor who has twice rejected a special prosecutor to look into their concerns.

This post, I think, best sums up citizens’ frustrations:

“Harvey amasses a huge personal fortune in a county where many of (the) people he should be serving work hard to make ends meet. His department drains off huge amounts of the county's budget so he can drive a Yukon Denali into cars parked in driveways after drinking at his (I mean his wife’s) country club while Wakulla roads go unpaved and fire and EMS work on a shoestring budget.”

How and why can he get away with it? As the Sunday article says: He’s the sheriff of Wakulla County.

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