Marlins acquire Villone- Lose to Nats

Nick Johnson's return to the lineup sparked a 4-2 Washington win against the Marlins today at Dolphins Stadium. The loss snapped the Fish's four game winning streak and dropped the Marlins further back in the NL Wild Card race. Former Marlins turned annual Marlin killer, Livan Hernandez pitched 8 solid innings for the Nationals and got the win, his first since before the All Star game.

The Marlins completed a trade with Seattle right before the 4pm Eastern time trade deadline. The Marlins shipped minor leaguer Yorman Barzado to the Mariners in exchange for veteran lefty Ron Villone. Expect Villone to fit right into a set role in the Marlins pen. The acquisition of Villone will give the Marlins a strong left handed arm to use in the late innings of close games down the stretch.

1995 revisted: Tom DeLay gives Bill Clinton a boost in Florida

Ten years ago today one of the most heinous acts in the recent history of the House of Representatives took place. Tom DeLay, the former owner of a pesticide company in Sugarland, Texas and the Majority Whip had forced the VA/HUD Appropriations Committee had added seventeen riders to the annual appropriations bill which would among other things prevent the EPA from enforcing the Clean Air or Clean Water Acts. The legislation was to have a profound impact in Florida as it would have redefined what wetland protection and could have potentially opened up greater portions of the Everglades for development. The Petroleum industry had essentially written the bill in DeLay’s office and had a major stake in making sure it was passed.

Sherwood Boehlert, a New York moderate Republican (who was three years later challenged in a GOP primary by Randall Terry a founder of Operation Rescue) who has a strong green streak offered an amendment on the floor to kill these provisions. In a shocking vote, over 40 Republican spilt with the GOP leadership the first vote the leadership had lost all year in the first year the Republicans had the majority in the House since 1954. This vote took place on Thursday July 27th.On Monday July 31st, when many members were still out of town, DeLay had a member who had voted on victorious side reconsider the vote and the Amendment died on a tie 210-210 vote. I was personally tracking the issue and in the days before constant political news on the cable news networks, I did not realize that the amendment had been reconsidered until later in the week! The Senate stripped the provision, but the damage to the GOP was done. Interestingly, 8 Florida Republicans (Foley, Goss, Miller, Shaw, Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, Scarborough and Young) were among the 40 or so Republicans that split with DeLay and the leadership on this issue. The reason was obvious. Florida voters, especially Florida Republican voters are environmentalists. Florida business and tourism depends on a clean environment. Our low rate of taxation depends on an attractive business and tourist climate which is based on a clean coastline, pristine beaches and Everglades preservation.

Almost immediately, Dick Morris and the Clinton re-election team began airing brilliantly marketed early ads in Florida concerning the GOP attempts to slash Environmental Protection. These ads were effective largely because they defined the GOP long before the Election season began, and before the GOP spin machine was fully operational and secondly because they were never aired in Washington D.C. or New York City where the elite political media resides. By the time the talking heads inside the beltway realized these ads were running and began dissecting it on the Sunday morning shows, the damage had been done and the GOP was to unable to recover in time for the 1996 Election cycle in Florida. So the next time we think about Bill Clinton’s smashing Florida win in 1996 give a little credit to the industry whore from Sugarland, Texas whose corruption has defined a generation of leadership in the House of Representatives.

Classic Game # 1: Miami defeats Nebraska in the Orange Bowl- 1983 Season

Miami wins its first National Title in what many analysts have called the greatest College Football game ever played. Check it out at Florida College Sports.

Mica kills I-4 tolls

Despite continued traffic delays on I-4 and a backlog in road projects in Central Florida that need to be funded, U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Winter Park) has killed plans to toll proposed "express" lanes of the Interstate through Orange and Seminole Counties. Mica's influence on Tranposrtation issues in the House has been helpful to Central Florida in the past as he helped secure funding for a new I-4 bridge over the St John's River between Sanford and Deltona a few years ago. Hopefully this move by Mica will not further stall Central Florida's efforts to build new roads and improve the overburdended Interstate, though the tolls would have certainly helped the long term funding situation for infrastructure needs in the region.

Sun Sentinel: Campbell to seek AG post

Senator Skip Campbell who has been rumored on several occasions in the past to run for statewide office, and who seriously flirted with running for U.S. Senate will run for Attorney General next year according to this morning's Sun Sentinel. Campbell (D-Coral Springs) is term limited in 2006.

Tom Delay's power grab, ten years later

This weekend on Kartik's World, how Tom DeLay's power grab on July 31, 1995 to overide the EPA's enforcement abilities helped Bill Clinton carry Florida in 1996.

American Airlines to grow Miami hub yet again

American Airlines which has almost doubled its daily departures from its Miami Worldgateway facility since January 2002 has added more flights to its schedule yet again. The new services are as follows.

Curacao: Incr from 10 to 12 a wk from Aug 24
Kingston: Incr from 2 to 3 a day from Oct 30
Montego Bay: Incr from 3 to 4 a day from Dec 15
St Kitts: Incr from 3 to 5 a wk from Oct 30
Washington DC: Incr from 7 to 8 a day from Oct 30
Guanacaste: Incr 5 to 7 a wk (Dec 13 to Apr 1)
Rio: Incr 7 to 12 a wk (Dec 15 to Feb 28)
Santiago : Incr 7 to 10 a wk (Dec15 to Apr 3)
Montevideo: New nonstops 3 times a week begin October 31st
Manchester, UK: Daily seasonal service resumes Oct 30th.
London Heathrow: Incr 10 to 14 a wk (Oct 30 to Apr 1)

The Kingston and Montego Bay additions are likely due to the new service Spirit Airlines will begin from Fort Lauderdale this winter. In addition, US Airways has added service in recent months from Fort Lauderdale to Jamaica. Also in the coming months look for American to possibly add nonstop service from Miami to Dublin and/or Brussels

Florida College Sports great game countdown nearing # 1

Our July feature on great games has reached # 3 with the 1988 classic between Miami and Michigan in Ann Arbor.Check out the entire countdown at Florida College Sports.

Sources: Alex Sink getting in CFO race

Multiple sources indicate to Florida Buzz that Banker Alex Sink, the wife of 2002 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill McBride will enter the race for Florida's chief Financial Officer as early as next week. Sink would be a formidable candidate that should the Democrats statewide as she is a business savvy, well connected, political moderate from the Tampa Bay Area which is Florida's largest media market.

Sink will be a formidable candidate no doubt, probably the most formidable candidate the Democrats have offered for a statewide cabinet office in sometime, but she may have to overcome a sluggish performance from other Democrats on the ticket to win. A Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous stated that he expects the Democrats to lose every statewide election next year except for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bill Nelson by double digits. The strategist said " we just don't have the organization or the ground game to be competitive statewide even when we have good candidates, because our local organizations are a complete joke compared to the GOPs."

The Republican field for CFO includes Senate President Tom Lee (R- Brandon) and State Representative Randy Johnson (R- Winter Garden). State Representative Dennis Ross (R-Lakeland) we learned earlier this week will not pursue a race for CFO in order to stay with his law firm.

Source: Marlins done shopping Burnett

A reliable source has told Florida Buzz that the Marlins after nearly a month of constant trade talk have chosen to shelve talk of trading A.J. Burnett instead focusing on acquiring middle relief help through trading minor league prospects. The source indicated that the offers for Burnett were not comparable to the organizations expectations and that Marlins management feels comfortable enough with the current lineup to not make any major moves before the July 31st trading deadline. The only scenario under which the fish would trade Burnett the source stated was if a team were willing to pay the majority of the remaining $22 million owed to Marlins thrid baseman Mike Lowell as well as agree to a long term deal with Burnett before the trade were made.

A new crossing of the St John's River being studied

A new crossing of the St Johns River between Orange Park and Green Cove Springs is being studied by the D.O.T. This new bridge if built will provide an effective connection between Blanding Blvd. to I-95 and would replace the aging Shands bridge. The D.O.T. is considering making the bridge and its approach routes a limited access toll road.

If the D.O.T. is to seriously improve traffic flow over the St Johns River, not only must this traffic corridor be built, but improvements must be made to the Matthews Bridge which cannot handle the current traffic load that uses to bridge to travel from Downtown Jacksonville to Arlington. The Matthews Bridge is a Cantilever Truss Bridge, similar in age, design and length to the original Talmadge Bridge in Savannah and the Grace Memorial Bridge in Charleston. Both those bridges have been replaced in favor of Cable Stayed bridges similar to Jacksonville's Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge at Dames Point. The Matthews Bridge is also similar in design to the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge which was replaced after the 1980 disaster, and like that bridge it does not meet Interstate standards for shoulder length or lane width.

Art Teele dead after shooting himself in the lobby of the Miami Herald

Art Teele whose political career has spanned over two decades was declared dead on Tuesday night after shooting himself. Teele who finsihed second in the race for Mayor of miami-Dade County in 1996 (behind Alex Penelas) has been beset by charges of corrpution and legal problems over the past several years.

Welcome to Florida Buzz!

This website will focus on the daily news of Florida, covering the state from Pensacola to Key West.