Advocates calls for federal action to restore ex-felons' voting rights

From the News Service of Florida:

Hundreds of thousands of Florida ex-felons who have completed their sentences still can't vote, a prohibition that is hindering their re-entry into society, a group of voting rights advocates said Tuesday as they urged Congress to step in.

Changes made last year in Florida have stopped restoration efforts for ex-felons who have served their prison sentences or completed probation, a shift in policy that came four years after former Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet voted to join most other states and automatically restore the rights of felons who had paid their debt to society.

Hampered in efforts to change state law, Mark Schlakman, a Democratic candidate for Congress and Walter McNeil, former Department of Corrections secretary, on Tuesday urged Florida's congressional delegation to push for federal law changes to require automatic restoration of civil rights for federal elections.

The practical result, said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho, would be that state election officials would follow suit because a dual registration system for state and federal elections would not work.

Florida gets $56 million in GlaxoSmithKline Medicaid fraud settlement

In what is being called the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the nation's history, pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion for its transgressions. Florida's share is $56.7 million.

According to a news release from Attorney General Pam Bondi's office, GlaxoSmithKline is accused of unlawfully marketing drugs for uses that were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, misleading the public about the safety and effectiveness of certain drugs, offering kickbacks to medical professionals, and stiffing government programs, including Medicaid, on rebates owed.

“My office has worked with others to reach the largest healthcare fraud settlement in United States history," Bondi said in the news release. "I am proud to say that this agreement makes Florida whole for the deceptive practices that misled consumers and defrauded the Medicaid program out of money.”

Heavily marketed drugs like Paxil, Avandia, Advair and Valtrex are named in the settlement. For example, the anit-depression pill Paxil was promoted for off-label uses by children and adolescents. As part of the settlement, GlaxoSmithKline also plead guilty to criminal charges.

Here is how Florida's $56.7 million portion of the settlement will be allocated:

-$31.8 million to the federal government;
-$11.3 million to Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration;
-$10 million to the state's general fund;
-$1.1 million to the Attorney General Office's;
-$2.4 million will be paid to whistleblowers who were instrumental in the investigation.

Read Bondi's full news release here.

Attorney General Bondi confident Supreme Court will strike down 'Obamacare'

There was a chance that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Florida's challenge to health care reform would occur today, so all the cable news channels were focused on "Obamacare" coverage this morning.  We eventually learned that the ruling won't be released until Thursday, but we did get a chance to watch Attorney General Pam Bondi on FOX News talking about what she believes the High Court should do.

Bondi noted that the Supreme Court heard nearly six hours of testimony on the case, an unusal amount of time for oral arguments. The questions justices raised bode well for Florida and the 25 other states challenging health care reform, she said.

“The main questions that they asked made me feel very confident that they saw our point of view, that they took this very seriously and that they realized this would be the greatest over reach of federal power in our entire history if this act is upheld," the attorney general said.

When asked how the Supreme Court would rule -- whether it would uphold all, part or none of the "Obamacare" law -- Bondi predicted the states would come out on top.

Another big endorsement for Connie Mack: FL AG Pam Bondi

If Florida's top Republicans were deciding the U.S. Senate primary, the race would be over in June, well before the Aug. 14 primary, now that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has joined former Gov. Jeb Bush and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in endorsing Rep. Connie Mack.

There's a little error at the bottom of the press release. It says Sen. Marco Rubio has endorsed Mack. The Mack camp says it should've said Rubio endorsed the Congressman's budget-cutting "Penny Plan."

The press release:

MIAMI – The Mack for Senate campaign today announced the endorsement of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, the lead attorney general in the 26 state lawsuit seeking to overturn ObamaCare by challenging its constitutionality.  A ruling on the case is expected from the U.S. Supreme Court this month.

Causeway attack brings new attention to synthetic drugs

The face-eating attack on a homeless man in Miami last month has brought renewed attention to the state’s and law enforcement’s increasingly difficult efforts to stay one step ahead of an industry that is ready to profit from sales of legal but harmful synthetic drugs.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has worked to outlaw manmade narcotic “bath salts” since shortly after she took office, said she is ready to add more chemicals to the list of banned substances, including “Spice” and other synthetic drugs sold at gas stations and specialty shops. Her spokeswoman said Bondi is trying to “remain vigilant.”

But law enforcement officials, who are seeing a spike in uncharacteristically violent behavior associated with users of synthetic drugs, worry that with every banned chemical added to the list, manufacturers of the compounds concoct a new combination that gets around the ban.

They are calling for Bondi, state legislators and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to make it harder for manufacturers to circumvent existing bans and keep new variations of the dangerous drugs from store shelves. Currently, every new compound has to be identified before it is outlawed, and law enforcement officials say it’s time for a new system.

“We could have 10,000 different substances banned before long, as the chemists in China or wherever they are keep modifying them,” said Tommy Ford, a major in the Bay County Sheriff’s Office who first brought the bath salts issue to Bondi’s attention in 2011.

Read more here.

Synthetic drug concerns in Florida renewed by recent 'Miami Zombie' attack

Shortly after Attorney General Pam Bondi took office last year, she worked to outlaw man-made narcotic "bath salts."

The Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott followed with laws to ban chemicals found in "bath salts," "Spice" and other synthetic drugs sold at gas stations and specialty shops. As a result, many of these products disappeared from store shelves.

But the "Miami Zombie" attack and other high-profile incidents of uncharacteristically violent behavior have created questions about how substances with such harmful side effects remain accessible and, in some instances, legal.

Law enforcement agencies are concerned that manufacturers are finding ways to keep synthetic drugs on shelves by replacing banned compounds with ones that aren't illegal.

Cynthia Lewis-Younger, medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa, said it's happening.

"They try and get around the law," she said.

Read more here.

Attorney General Pam Bondi defends Florida’s voter purge on Fox News

It took us a couple days to get our hands on the video, but we finally were able to track down Attorney General Pam Bondi’s interview from Tuesday with Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly. The topic was the Department of Justice’s objection to the timing of Florida’s voter purge. Foreshadowing Gov. Rick Scott’s defiant response, Bondi defended the state’s actions and criticized the Department of Homeland Security for refusing to share its immigration database.

 

Here is a transcript of Bondi’s interview, with Kelly’s questions and comments (paraphrased in itallics):

Why does the Department of Justice care enough to weigh in on Florida’s actions? “You know, Megyn, that’s a great question because wouldn’t you think despite what party we are, what ethnicity, what race, we should we all want fair elections? Because every single person who votes illegally nullifies a legal vote.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi won't rule out suing feds over stonewalling noncitizen voter hunt

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's office won't rule out suing the Department of Homeland Security for refusing to share its citizenship database with Florida's elections division in its hunt for noncitizen voters.

"It's disappointing that the Obama Administration has been unwilling to help the Department of State ensure that we have accurate voter rolls," Bondi's office told The Miami Herald in response to an inquiry. "We still hope that the Department of State will be able to obtain the Obama Administration's cooperation without resorting to litigation, but we're monitoring the situation and believe Florida needs to keep all of its options open."

Bondi, a Republican, has already been a lead in suing the Obama Administration over ObamaCare. The noncitizen voter purge is highly popular with Republicans (and perhaps independents and many Democrats as well). So it wouldn't be a surprise if she took the feds to court over this.

Federal law (8 USC; 1373 to be exact), says the "Immigration and Naturalization Service shall respond to an inquiry by a Federal, State, or local government agency, seeking to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within the jurisdiction of the agency for any purpose authorized by law, by providing the requested verification or status information."

Is DHS breaking the law? It won't say. It won't comment. Perhaps there's an out: INS technically no longer exists.

Former Justice lawyer and GOP appointee Hans von Spakovsky said the state should sue. More here on that

Attorney General Pam Bondi: 'We are blessed to be happily in love'

After the Times/Herald published a story Wednesday night about Attorney General Pam Bondi's postponed wedding, Bondi got in touch by email from the Cayman Islands wanting to set the record straight about her relationship with ophthalmologist Greg Henderson.

They are still planning to marry, she said, and both are hurt by speculation that the cancellation of their destination wedding indicates trouble in paradise.

"We never dreamed we would be subjected to this contrived fabrication during such a joyful time in our lives," Bondi wrote. "Your 'speculative' statements are inaccurate and are without merit. We are blessed to be happily in love and are enjoying our life together."

Bondi has refused to clarify why she and Henderson made the last-minute decision despite repeated requests to do so.

That led outsiders to question whether the postponement reflects political positioning, the couple's desire to keep the events private, or a possible prenuptial disagreement. Bondi says any speculation that her relationship is in trouble is inaccurate.

The couple is currently vacationing together at an undisclosed location. Via Bondi's email account, Henderson confirmed that the relationship is going strong: "We are enjoying a happy and blessed trip and are deeply in love with each other."

Attorney General Pam Bondi's Cayman trip looked like a wedding; many wonder why it wasn't

It looked like a wedding.

Sixty or 70 guests at a luxury Caribbean resort, including the governor and a former Tampa mayor. A beaming bride in a white dress with a flower in her hair. A photographer flown in to take pictures of the smiling couple with aqua water behind them.

But Attorney General Pam Bondi says no ceremony took place at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman on Saturday. And many questions remain about when and why Bondi made the last-minute decision not to get married.

Did Bondi bow to conservative critics who felt her jaunt across seas was politically tone deaf? The 46-year-old now says she will be wed in a small, private ceremony at a Tampa-area Baptist church.

Did leaks on gossip blogs and social media sites cause the couple to shy from the publicity? A photo of Bondi serving cocktails during the plane ride to the Cayman Islands quickly made the rounds online.

Or is something more personal and heartbreaking involved? Bondi and her fiance, 62-year-old ophthalmologist Greg Henderson, spent the weekend entertaining family and friends and are still on vacation together. But that hasn't stopped people from wondering whether one of the two got cold feet or if there was a prenuptial disagreement.