PolitiFact checks out a claim on Glee

We’re gonna make this fact-check sing.

Or -- since this fact-check was inspired by a Spanish teacher played by singer Ricky Martin on the TV show Glee -- we will make it cantar.

Our fact-check is about how many people will be speaking Spanish as their first language in the year 2030. But before we hit play on our claim, we will catch you up with the show that follows a fictional Glee Club, named the New Directions, at a high school in Ohio.

The show is about a group of musically talented misfits who belt out songs in between typical teenage plot twists about dating, spats with their parents, applying to college and the ever-present quest for popularity. The worst is getting "slushied," which means having slushy drinks tossed in their faces by cool football players.

The cast of characters includes Artie, the bespectacled skinny guy in a wheelchair; Santana, the bad-ass Latina lesbian from the wrong side of town; Quinn, the blonde cheerleader/chastity club leader who gets pregnant; and many more. They are led by the Glee Club director/Spanish teacher William Schuester, who is on an annual quest to lead his club to victory at nationals.

The plot of the Feb. 7, 2012, episode: Schuester enrolls in a night Spanish class taught by Ricky Martin’s character, David Martinez. (Yep, Mr. Schuester is a Spanish teacher whose Spanish es muy muy malo.)

Martin tells his students that they need to learn Spanish to function in the U.S. in the future: "Do you know that the U.S. Census believes that by 2030 the majority of Americans will use Spanish as their first language?" Check out what the Truth-O-Meter concluded.

Sheriff Robert Crowder to challenge Allen West in a GOP primary

Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder announced today that he will challenge Broward Congressman Allen West in the Republican primary in the newly-drawn congressional seat that stretches to Martin County.

West, a Plantation Republican, announced plans to run for the 18th congressional seat after Rep. Tom Rooney, R-West Palm Beach, announced he would move further north.

Crowder has a long career in law enforcement, having served as Martin County sheriff for 20 years and as an undersheriff in St. Lucie County before that. in 2010, he appeared in a controversial campaign ad on behalf of Democrat Alex Sink in which he warned about the prospects of a Scott administration.

Crowder's announcement was first reported by WPEC, CBS-12.

Angered Citizens policyholder releases folk song, in protest

This gives public outcry a whole new meaning.

An unhappy Citizens Insurance Property Insurance Corp. customer has written a song in protest to the state-run insurer, after it dropped coverage of his carport.

Kevin Roth, a folk singer from Oakland Park, was shocked when he found out that Citizens would no longer insure his carport and screened porch, part of a wide-ranging coverage change enacted by the company last year.

 

Spurred by Hillsborough case, Senate passes tougher penalties for video voyeurism

The Florida Senate moved on Tuesday to strengthen the state's video voyeurism laws, a proposal created after two Bulgarian women discovered cameras inside their Hillsborough County apartment last summer.

SB 436, sponsored by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, passed 40-0. Under current law, a first-time violation of video voyeurism -- the act of secretly recording a person dressing, undressing, is nude or when he or she has a "reasonable expectation of privacy." -- is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail or a $1,000 fine. Storms' bill would make it a third-degree felony. Maximum penalties would increase to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Amping up the charge allows law enforcement to more easily obtain evidence and issue search warrants.

Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, added a late amendment that would prevent people 18 and younger from facing felony charges on their first offense.

Storms didn't really want the amendment but accepted it, saying she wanted to get to other bills.

"Love is in the air, thank you, thank you," Joyner said.

The House version, HB 215, sponsored by Tampa Republican Rep. Dana Young has not yet been heard on the floor.

Senators vote against chairman on ethics bill

Lawmakers who also work with the state university system won't have to chose between jobs after an ethics bill died in the Senate today.

SB 1560, which would have prevented lawmakers from working with or contracting with state colleges or universities, was voted down 6-6 in the Senate Rules Committee despite the fact that Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the sponsor of the bill, is the committee chair.

Thrasher said he considered postponing the vote on the bill, but decided to let the bill die if other lawmakers didn’t think it was worthwhile.

Dangerous bath salts are back

Parents, take note.

Dangerous synthetic drugs have returned to convenience-store shelves.

Last year, the Florida Legislature banned several forms of synthetic cathinones, or bath salts, that had become popular among teenagers. Lawmakers also banned synthetic cannabinoids, known informally as K2. The drugs have been known to cause violent hallucinations, paranoia, muscle damage and kidney failure.

But since then, chemists have tweaked the formula –- and the drugs are back.

Lawmakers now want to make it a third-degree felony to manufacture or sell the new forms of the drugs.

PolitiFact Florida: Do private prison guards chase inmates who escape?

The divided Florida Senate will take up a critical vote today on an effort to outsource operations of 27 state prisons in South Florida.

One argument we've heard against the plan is that it will threaten public safety. Private prison guards, state correctional officers and some senators say, don't chase after escaped inmates beyond their property line.

But private prison operators say they do. Who's right? Read our PolitiFact Florida story on this claim ahead of today's vote.

Coral Gables' rich vs. super-rich in marina dispute, starring mega-Romney donor & Miami Heat prez

Here’s something to make the one percent boiling mad: Try putting a big warehouse for regular rich folks’ boats in their backyard.

And if that backyard also happens to be a much-loved, historic and ecologically sensitive park?

Sit back and watch the sparks fly.

A plan by Miami-Dade County and famed former Miami Dolphin Nick Buoniconti and his son Marc to erect an $18 million, five-story dry-stack building for 360 powerboats in Matheson Hammock Park’s marina has run into a veritable buzzsaw of opposition from its Coral Gables neighbors, including multi-millionaire HMO entrepreneur Miguel “Mike” Fernandez and his Gables Estates neighbor, Miami Heat President Pat Riley.

Fernandez — who paid $21 million for a house on a point of land overlooking the tranquil bayfront park and tore it down to build a massive mega-mansion — is bankrolling an opposition campaign that has the incensed Buonicontis, whose partnership won a competitive bid to build and manage the boathouse for the county, up against the ropes.

Fernandez, who was to host a Mitt Romney fundraiser at his manse this year, also gave $1 million to the pro-Romney PAC, Restore Our Future.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/11/2636974/its-rich-vs-super-rich-in-boat.html#storylink=cpy

Daily Digest for Tuesday, 2/14

Daily Digest for 2/14 [Listen or Download]

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Five Stories To Think About Today

 * Happy Valentine’s Day! What’s more romantic than prison privatization? The Senate is scheduled to take a dramatic up or down vote on a controversial plan to privatize south Florida prisons and work camps. The vote is too close to call and Senate President Mike Haridopolos declined to predict the outcome Monday.

* The House is in session too, with a bill to create 2012’s sales tax holiday listed as its first order of business. For three days in August, clothing, wallets, and bags less than $75 and school supplies less than $15 will be tax-exempt.