Saturday, April 30, 2011
Hialeah Julio Robaina skipped out on yet another forum. By Geniusofdespair
Hialeah Julio did not attend the Miami Voice debate last night in Miami Lakes. Note: he did attend the LBA debate...the only one I know of that he attended.
Our 2011 Beauty Contest is Finally in Gear! By Geniusofdespair
Our nominees for best looking elected official in South Florida are:
City of Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez, Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez, Miami Springs Councilman Dan Espino, Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs, North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre and Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus.
Our 2009 winner was Oscar Braynon, take a look at the nominees. In 2010 I ran an ethically challenged beauty contest. You had to be an arrested office holder to compete. I had no shortage of candidates, I even added a new one. Michelle Spence Jones easily won in 2010. Vote for your choice!
Gutted by the Florida Legislature: Growth Management ... by gimleteye
This is what "a major overhaul of the state’s growth management laws" looks like. And barring a last minute miracle, the extremists in the Florida GOP will get what they want: the opportunity to use the economic crisis to make it easier for speculators to kill off what remains of Florida natural heritage and quality of life. Yesterday GOP radicals attached the growth management destruction bill to the budget, even though the Senate has not heard the measure. The radical extremists in the Republican majority feared that public pressure would water it down and so they attacked.
The bill will make citizen plan amendment challenges more difficult, remove the option for smaller local governments to have full state review of plan amendments, significantly increase thresholds for DRIs, and exempt mining and industrial development from DRI reviews. In other words, the victory obtained by citizens in Miami-Dade to stop a Lowe's Home Improvement store from being built at the edge of the Everglades (County Commissioner Pepe Diaz and Joe Martinez and former VNS Natacha Seijas pushed it through, consuming the county attorney's office) will now be thrown out the window. The political payoffs will reward US Century Bank (rated ZERO by Bauer Financial Rating) board members Ramon Rasco, Rodney Barreto, and speculators like Ed Easton and Sergio Pino who benefit from the gutting to make their illiquid investments attractive to the next speculator in line.
Please contact key legislators as soon as possible, even this weekend if possible, as some will be at their offices then:
Please contact the Budget Conference Chairs:
Sen. J.D. Alexander, 850-487-5044, alexander.jd.web@flsenate
Rep. Denise Grimsley, (850) 488-3457, denise.grimsley@myfloridahouse.gov
As readers of our blog know, neither G.O.D. nor I have time to mince words. We are simply writing what we know, based on many years of volunteerism without any expectation of benefit. That Lowe's battle at the Urban Development Boundary consumed precious community resources, involving public interest attorneys like Richard Grosso and the Everglades Law Center working for a fraction of the money poured by a major corporation into the effort to reverse public policy based on sound planning principles. Rick Scott will go down as Florida's worst governor in history, if only for the destruction caused by the legislature under his watch and approval in only his first year in office. Scott knows nothing of Florida's political history related to development, quality of life and environment. And that is what a barely legal fortune has bought us.
Nathaniel Reed was there at the start, in the 1970's when a broad bipartisan consensus among Florida elected leaders held forth that wrecking Florida to serve private profit needed rules.
An OPED by Mr. Reed from this week's St. Pete Times is printed, below. It is worth noting that Linda Bell, the county commissioner representing South Dade is determined to wreck DERM (Department of Environmental Resource Management) on behalf of political interests who long ago tangled with environmentalists and Reed: millionaire farmers like James Humble whose consortium held up the government acquisition of The Frog Pond in Southwest Dade for years, until he and his investor associates could extract the last dime from the federal government. Humble is one of the interests who apparently believe that in return for propelling Bell into the county commission seat occupied earlier by the commission's only reliable environmental vote, that Bell should be the spear tip for their radical agenda: eliminate DERM. Their revival of the 8.5 Square Mile Area, in geographic proximity to The Frog Pond, is just the latest provocation in a 30 Year War against the environment in South Florida, and one that is emblematic of the incessant demand by speculators to dominate government.
You see: they are not even waiting for the carcass of growth management to cool before gutting it at the local level, where the GOP trusts government authority the most. They hate federal government. They are dismantling state regulations. They want power vested at the lowest common unit of authority where it costs least to deform democracy. We've seen this movie before, but read on:
Don't let Florida revert to abuses of past:
Friday, April 29, 2011
Call your legislators! Frankenstein Bill heads for passage ... by gimleteye
Legislative tornadoes forecast as a result of the 2010 November election are ripping through Tallahassee. One is embodied in HB 991: comprised of scores of special interest changes to long-standing environmental policies. The bill limits local regulation of mining, affirms that groundwater can be contaminated by landfills, allows increased development in wetlands, and excuses some owners of underground tanks from protecting groundwater from leaking fuel, while greatly diminishing the rights of citizens to challenge environmentally harmful projects.
House leaders could send the bill back to committee and Senate leaders should resist special interest attempts to amend the bill’s bad provisions to unrelated legislation, but there is a good chance that the bill will vault through rules. HB 991 was supposed to go through two more committees (Appropriations and State Affairs) but House leaders avoided this requirement and put this bad bill on the fast track to passage. If there is one phone call to make this legislative session, call your Representative: vote 'NO' on the Frankenstein Bill. Click 'read more' for further analysis:
My Favorite Time of Year: Poinciana Trees in Bloom. by Geniusofdespair
I took this yesterday with my crappy cell phone and it still looks glorious. Coincidentally, I previously reported on this tree: the pretzel tree.
Hialeah Julio Robaina Disses 7 Mayors from Cities in Miami Dade County. By Geniusofdespair
Last Night Mayor Susan Gottlieb, City of Aventura; Mayor Glenn Singer, Town of Golden Beach; Mayor Norman Edelcup, Sunny Isles Beach; Mayor Col. Kenneth Weinstein, Bay Harbor; Mayor Jean Rosenfield, Bal Harbour Village; Mayor Bernard Klepach, Indian Creek Village; Mayor Daniel Dietch, Surfside and most of the Commissioners and Council people were there for the Miami Dade Mayoral forum, moderated by Michael Putney, in Aventura. Also in attendance was Michael Karp from the School Board and me.
Conspicuously absent: Hialeah Julio Robaina.
I don't care what else he had planned, Julio should have been at this forum. Ignoring a large segment of the County is political suicide. It tells people that you think they don't matter. The forum was well attended by actual voters, not just flunkies from the various campaigns. Only Julio Robaina and Wilbur 'Short Stop' Bell were not there.
I added in this millage chart because of the dumb-ass comments. There are about 60,000 people in these seven cities, including Norman Braman.
Although the population in Hialeah is much larger, at over 200,000 the registered voters hovers around 80,000. The percentage of registered voters in the seven cities is much higher. For example, 14,136 is the number of registered voters in Aventura more than 1/2 the population. Sweetwater has only about 1/3 its population as registered voters (4,675 registered voters - its population is at about 14,226).
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Glitch on Posting Comments. By Geniusofdespair
I HAVE COMMENTS POSTING BELOW THE POST FOR NOW -- INSTEAD OF POP-UP PAGE -- BUT IT IS NOW WORKING FOR ANONYMOUS COMMENTS. THERE IS A TAB TO HIT TO FIND 'ANONYMOUS'
Earlier today:
I have some complaints that anonymous posting is not working. Appears the problem is with Blogspot:
A blogger reported: Something seems to be wrong with my comments section. If somebody decides to comment as anonymous or with Name/Url they are automatically treated as if they had chosen to comment with their Blogger/Google account.
Official Blog*Star - 9:28 AM
Google Engineering are now aware of the issue and are looking into releasing a fix when they find the cause.
Earlier today:
I have some complaints that anonymous posting is not working. Appears the problem is with Blogspot:
A blogger reported: Something seems to be wrong with my comments section. If somebody decides to comment as anonymous or with Name/Url they are automatically treated as if they had chosen to comment with their Blogger/Google account.
Official Blog*Star - 9:28 AM
Google Engineering are now aware of the issue and are looking into releasing a fix when they find the cause.
EYE ON MIAMI Endorses Julio Robaina (TGO) for County Commissioner. By Geniusofdespair and Gimleteye
The District 7 County Commission seat opened up when Carlos Gimenez had to resign to run for Mayor. We were very pleased when we saw that Julio Robaina (not to be confused with Hialeah Julio running for mayor) was seeking the seat. We have both known Rep. Robaina since he was the Mayor of South Miami. He was very popular and environmentally conscious. Although we disagreed on some issue while he was in the State House, we were happy with his support for Growth Management and the Department of Community Affairs. He said, when I spoke to him Wednesday, that he supports holding the Urban Development Boundary and he doesn't want those Godawful FPL poles cutting through District 7. He said the high tension wires need to be buried. While he was Mayor of South Miami, the City was named one of the top ten cities in the United States and had the honor of being named “All-America City” by the National Civic League.
We support Julio Robaina, the good one (TGO), for County Commission District 7.
Thank you and welcome to Miami, President Obama ... by gimleteye
Dear President Obama, welcome to Miami-Dade, the most electorally powerfully county in Florida. I am glad the birthers won't have your imaginary birth controversy to kick around any more. These times are too serious to leave to the carnival barkers, in your words. We have a different brand of carnival barker in our state. They dominate the legislature in Tallahassee where decades of protections for Floridians are about to be wrecked in what is best described as a Frankenstein Omnibus Bill. Here, the radicals have proxies that serve for your birth certificate. Proxies like the US Environmental Protection Agency.
This week, district federal judge Alan Gold issued another stinging rebuke to Florida in a ruling as a result of a legal case brought in 2005 by a small environmental group for which I volunteer, Friends of the Everglades, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians. After years of study and analysis of competing claims, Judge Gold's ruling unequivocally demonstrates that Florida has been a bad steward of resources of national importance-- the people's Everglades-- for twenty five years. Specifically, radicals in the legislature are determined to rewrite the definition of pollution in order to allow polluters to keep polluting our waters and land at the expense of taxpayers. During your speech to graduates of Miami Dade College on Friday, you will encourage young men and women facing the challenges of a new economic order that can no longer count on debt to paper over years of bad decision making that mainly served to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. It is also imperative that you speak the truth about what is happening in states like Florida, where legislatures continue to shift the costs of business-as-usual onto the backs of future taxpayers. Thank you for supporting the EPA, standing up to Florida and the polluters.
The Spent Fuel Problem at FPL Turkey Point ... by gimleteye
Exactly what we are saying: "And yet, the total eventual and inescapable costs of final nuclear waste storage have never been imposed on either the shareholders or ratepayers of electric utility companies. Those costs have been “externalized” to future taxpayers, but are carried “off the books.” Were we to impose the true costs on utility customers, it is likely that nuclear generated electricity would cost at least three to four times the present price. Today’s utility company profits and low electric energy costs will mean little to our descendants, to whom the job of nuclear cleanup will fall." Read FPRI Senior Fellow Lawrence Husick, "Spent Nuclear Fuel: A National Security and Environmental Migraine Headache." (Click, 'read more')SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL
A National Security and Environmental Migraine Headache
By Lawrence A. Husick
April 2011
Lawrence Husick is a Senior Fellow at FPRI, where he concentrates on the study of terrorist tactics and counterterrorism strategies, with a particular focus on technology leverage as a defining characteristic of the modern terrorist. He is also co-director of the FPRI’s Wachman Centes Program on Teaching Innovation.
PDF Version of bulletin. (2 pages, 67K )
A National Security and Environmental Migraine Headache
By Lawrence A. Husick
April 2011
Lawrence Husick is a Senior Fellow at FPRI, where he concentrates on the study of terrorist tactics and counterterrorism strategies, with a particular focus on technology leverage as a defining characteristic of the modern terrorist. He is also co-director of the FPRI’s Wachman Centes Program on Teaching Innovation.
PDF Version of bulletin. (2 pages, 67K )
Miami Herald Op Ed You Won't Want to Miss. By Geniusofdespair
This Op-Ed is written by a close friend, and someone I respect on this subject:
Proposed land-use law would be huge mistake
By RICHARD GROSSO -grossor@nsu.law.nova.edu
Florida is threatened by the growth-management bills our Legislature is about to approve. Their passage would be one the greatest mistakes in our history. The rhetoric supporting a drastic dismantling of the state’s ability to manage its growth and the specifics of the proposals are tragically flawed.
The current glut of vacant homes and offices, and of approved, unbuilt development, happened under current law. Some say this development was approved in the wrong places, but the market, to which some now want to hand over the job of looking out for the interests of the state, sought those approvals. The Legislature should not make things worse for those who cannot sell their homes or rent their office space by making the approval of new development easier. Developers won’t be building much anytime soon, but are taking this opportunity to position themselves well, at the state’s expense, for their future.
Managing growth is smart economics in a state whose lifeblood is tourism and that has a unique environment and quality of life. We are in an era where smart heads of families and businesses are looking for those things and a good education system. Development is heavily subsidized by existing residents and taxpayers who pay for most of the roads, schools, fire stations and other things we must provide to new development. The ability to make sure that this development goes where it makes sense for the state must come with that subsidy. Florida is a low-tax state where almost everybody wants to live, work or vacation. We should not give Florida away for free. (Press read more...)
The proposed dismantling of the state planning agency is ill-conceived. The size of the agency’s budget, compared to the importance and impact of planning decisions on everything from economy, education, crime, the environment and other issues is small. The limitation of the state’s role to matters of “statewide importance” is completely undefined and will create widespread confusion about what decisions are subject to state review, taking us back to the “every community for itself” situation that gave rise to this law in the first place.
The “local control” argument for repealing state oversight of most planning decisions ignores the reality that many local planning decisions affect more than one community. One of the main reasons the act was originally adopted was to stop the practice of one local government approving revenue-creating projects in locations that left neighboring communities holding the bag of traffic, pollution or neighborhood impacts.
Also important is the number of local officials now charged with or serving time for selling their development votes. That many local governments now have planning programs doesn’t justify removing the state’s role. It doesn’t take many developments in the wrong place to create huge problems in an entire region. With the prevailing budget scenarios, smaller local governments with few planning resources will essentially be at the mercy of sophisticated developers with their teams of professional consultants.
The bills would encourage — or mandate — the approval of massive new towns in the middle of remote areas, but requirements for set-asides of natural or farm lands are nonexistent or completely vague. The public would be required to subsidize these new towns, at the expense of existing towns, and without the significant permanent preservation of important lands that the supporters of these projects claim as their benefit.
Large, rural projects could be approved without the need for a land use plan change, and disputes over them would be moved from administrative hearings (whose judges are well-versed in planning law) to the circuit-court system (where most trial judges are not). Weakening the act’s urban sprawl provisions will devastate farms and forests, rivers and lakes. Weakening the requirement for developers to pay for their impact on schools, roads and parks will be felt by all existing taxpayers.
The bills put the responsibility to enforce what remains of planning law on local residents, but makes it unrealistic for citizens to enforce the law — placing upon them the burden of proving a lack of any “fair debate” as to whether a land use approval complies with this now impossibly vague law.
Once approved, development decisions can almost never be undone. We stand on the verge of allowing the special places in our state to be permanently lost.
Richard Grosso teaches land use and environmental law and directs the Environmental and Land Use Law Clinic at Nova Southeastern University.
Proposed land-use law would be huge mistake
By RICHARD GROSSO -grossor@nsu.law.nova.edu
Florida is threatened by the growth-management bills our Legislature is about to approve. Their passage would be one the greatest mistakes in our history. The rhetoric supporting a drastic dismantling of the state’s ability to manage its growth and the specifics of the proposals are tragically flawed.
The current glut of vacant homes and offices, and of approved, unbuilt development, happened under current law. Some say this development was approved in the wrong places, but the market, to which some now want to hand over the job of looking out for the interests of the state, sought those approvals. The Legislature should not make things worse for those who cannot sell their homes or rent their office space by making the approval of new development easier. Developers won’t be building much anytime soon, but are taking this opportunity to position themselves well, at the state’s expense, for their future.
Managing growth is smart economics in a state whose lifeblood is tourism and that has a unique environment and quality of life. We are in an era where smart heads of families and businesses are looking for those things and a good education system. Development is heavily subsidized by existing residents and taxpayers who pay for most of the roads, schools, fire stations and other things we must provide to new development. The ability to make sure that this development goes where it makes sense for the state must come with that subsidy. Florida is a low-tax state where almost everybody wants to live, work or vacation. We should not give Florida away for free. (Press read more...)
The proposed dismantling of the state planning agency is ill-conceived. The size of the agency’s budget, compared to the importance and impact of planning decisions on everything from economy, education, crime, the environment and other issues is small. The limitation of the state’s role to matters of “statewide importance” is completely undefined and will create widespread confusion about what decisions are subject to state review, taking us back to the “every community for itself” situation that gave rise to this law in the first place.
The “local control” argument for repealing state oversight of most planning decisions ignores the reality that many local planning decisions affect more than one community. One of the main reasons the act was originally adopted was to stop the practice of one local government approving revenue-creating projects in locations that left neighboring communities holding the bag of traffic, pollution or neighborhood impacts.
Also important is the number of local officials now charged with or serving time for selling their development votes. That many local governments now have planning programs doesn’t justify removing the state’s role. It doesn’t take many developments in the wrong place to create huge problems in an entire region. With the prevailing budget scenarios, smaller local governments with few planning resources will essentially be at the mercy of sophisticated developers with their teams of professional consultants.
The bills would encourage — or mandate — the approval of massive new towns in the middle of remote areas, but requirements for set-asides of natural or farm lands are nonexistent or completely vague. The public would be required to subsidize these new towns, at the expense of existing towns, and without the significant permanent preservation of important lands that the supporters of these projects claim as their benefit.
Large, rural projects could be approved without the need for a land use plan change, and disputes over them would be moved from administrative hearings (whose judges are well-versed in planning law) to the circuit-court system (where most trial judges are not). Weakening the act’s urban sprawl provisions will devastate farms and forests, rivers and lakes. Weakening the requirement for developers to pay for their impact on schools, roads and parks will be felt by all existing taxpayers.
The bills put the responsibility to enforce what remains of planning law on local residents, but makes it unrealistic for citizens to enforce the law — placing upon them the burden of proving a lack of any “fair debate” as to whether a land use approval complies with this now impossibly vague law.
Once approved, development decisions can almost never be undone. We stand on the verge of allowing the special places in our state to be permanently lost.
Richard Grosso teaches land use and environmental law and directs the Environmental and Land Use Law Clinic at Nova Southeastern University.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Congressman Allen "Wild" West Show. By Geniusofdespair
Allen West Town Hall Meeting gone bad! Liberals are using the Tea Party playbook.
Nukes! Nope it never happens here...by Geniusofdespair
You just don't hear about it:The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday issued a statement confirming that workers at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio evacuated the plant on April 22 after radiation levels rose as the plant was shutting down for refueling.
Also, hit the report on the left from the NRC website on ANOTHER plant (this time in North Carolina) from March 30th. Do you think we are getting the whole story on these nuke 'events'? Note this 'event' in North Carolina is being retracted...apparently just like the Herald story...see Gimleteye's post below.
Read yesterday's NRC press release on Perry:
Hacked: Miami Herald archive on FPL Nuclear at Turkey Point... by gimleteye
On January 4, 2010 The Miami Herald published an article by John Dorschner, "Court records reveal trouble at Turkey Point" but you won't find it in the Herald online archive. Type, "FPL" or "Turkey Point" there, and you will find many articles on Turkey Point. Somehow, that one disappeared. The question arises, why was the article removed and yet an FPL response to the article remains? Perhaps it is a deliberate decision by a pro-nuclear Herald worker, like the FPL employee who drilled a 1/8th inch hole in a steam pipe at the nuclear facility. Or a favor. Or an innocent mistake. The article was retrieved from another search engine. Click 'read more' for what you won't find in the Herald archive unless an executive at the Herald says, "Put it back."
Court records reveal trouble at Turkey Point
Miami Herald, The (FL) - Monday, January 4, 2010
Author: JOHN DORSCHNER, dorschner@MiamiHerald.com
When Coleen Ware walked into Turkey Point, she was shocked to see that the indicators showing control rod positions looked like something out of an early '70s sci-fi movie.
On special assignment from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations to teach managers of the South Dade plant about safety, she was surprised by the aged indicators, which show the position of the rods in the reactor core -- a central measure about how the core is functioning.
''There are the old gauges . . . where . . . a needle that goes around and around,'' Ware testified, saying they were ''not very reliable.'' When operators looked at the indicators daily, ''they'd be stuck.
''So over the years, they developed the habit of pinging them to get them to move. . . . Well, that's not OK in a nuclear plant because you have to have reliable, you know, verification of where those rods are positioned. . . . That's a lesson from Three Mile Island,'' the worst nuclear disaster in American history.
In the hush-hush nuclear world, such insider details rarely, if ever, become public, but now a lawsuit has made public 2,000 pages of testimony that offer a fascinating window into the experiences, thoughts and frustrations of Turkey Point executives, employees and contract workers that reveal myriad problems.
Florida Power & Light, which operates the plant, says it's safe and all its actions are done according to federal regulation. ''Turkey Point has been operating for more than 30 years and has a very good safety record,'' says FPL spokesman Michael Waldron. All the control-rod indicators have now been ''updated or replaced and have extremely high reliability.''
NRC spokesman Joey Ledford spokesman said the NRC was aware of control rod position indication problems and FPL has upgraded them in Reactor Unit 4 and plans to upgrade them in Unit 3 next year, complying with all regulatory requirements.
Waldron emphasized that the transcripts from 17 people were made in 2008 by an investigator of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as part of a dispute between FPL and David Hoffman, its former senior licensed operator who quit abruptly, writing a late-night resignation letter saying he couldn't follow executives' demands that he do something he believed was extremely dangerous.
FPL is now suing Hoffman, seeking the return of a $50,000 bonus, and Hoffman is counter-suing. Hoffman also filed a complaint with the NRC, saying FPL had discriminated against him because he had raised concerns about safety.
After an investigation, the NRC reported it ''did not substantiate'' Hoffman's accusations. The federal regulatory authority also sided with the utility in several other issues that Hoffman had raised.
Some critics believe NRC strongly favors utilities. Vice President Joe Biden said in a 2007 interview, when he was a Delaware senator, that he had no confidence in the NRC. ''It's like getting homed -- coming into the small town and playing a basketball championship with the local refs.''
Hoffman started at Turkey Point in 1998, working his way up to become the senior operator, responsible for the plant's safe operation of the plant. In early 2008, he was earning $139,776 a year in base pay and was set to receive a $30,000 bonus in March.
Many of those who gave depositions spoke highly of him.
Tallman Whitler, an analyst brought in to improve the management system: ''Hoffman caught my eye because he had a commanding respect of the people that worked for him.''
Maria Lacal, another former operations manager: ''Dave is a very capable individual, extremely sharp, very knowledgeable, very dedicated to his job. . . . he needed to mature a little bit here and there.''
James Molden, a former operations manager, said Hoffman was ''very, very knowledgeable.'' Top executives ''were frustrated with Dave. . . . Dave would point out a lot of things that he was frustrated with. . . . There were never, you know, what I'll call happy moments. It was constantly 'This is what I need . . . and this is what I'm not getting.' ''
Michael Pearce, an FPL executive still with the utility, had a more negative view: ''David sometimes shoots from the hip, and his mouth will start before his brain engages.''
Ware, the outside consultant, praised Hoffman for ''coaching his shift managers to be more demanding with regard to equipment doing what it's designed to do, as opposed to various work-arounds, Rube Goldberg type methods for keeping the plant on line.''
Ware was dismayed at FPL's stance. ''Stuff wasn't getting fixed. . . . The message that came out of the leadership team was that there's nothing really wrong here. I mean it was just such a ridiculous message. . . . Everything comes down to dollars.''
In his deposition, Bill Jefferson, then the top executive at Turkey Point, said: ''I want to hear everything that's wrong with that power plant, and I want to fix everything that's wrong with the power plant.''
Still many employees were concerned that FPL was putting profits ahead of safety.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Shift manager Randy Flynn: ''Sometimes I think that the money was more important to the company than the people and resources. Yes I did.''
Whitler said many employees were fed up with the system. There were ''attrition rates of 30 percent a year. . . . There's a lot of brain drain walking out of the plant getting replaced by people with virtually no experience.''
Molden, the former operations manager, was continually concerned about the control rod indicators, which kept malfunctioning. He called several FPL executives, saying, ''We shouldn't be operating our plant at this standard.''
Upset by what they viewed as a lack of company support for safe operations, Molden and Mike Navin quit as operations managers. ''I left there because I didn't see the level of commitment to run the plant towards excellence, and Dave and I were of very like-minded,'' Navin recalled.
Waldron, the FPL spokesman, says, ''there is absolutely no scenario where we would put profits before safety.'' The utility invested $250 million to improve the plant from the beginning of 2008 through 2009, and Turkey Point is in compliance with all NRC requirements.
In late 2007, before this push began, FPL brought in Mike Kiley, a nuclear manager in New Hampshire, as general manager. In his deposition, Kiley said he had been ordered to deal with 1,700 items on the backlog list for repair. (Waldron says that the backlog is now down to 400 items, and only seven of them are considered essential for being fixed.)
At the time, Kiley said he quickly decided Hoffman ''was very resistant to the need for the department to change.''
William Hettel, a one-time operations manager: ''They did not look upon Dave favorably. I think Dave knew . . . things that needed to be done. He just felt we couldn't progress as fast'' as the top managers wanted.
''I think Dave's perspective was 'I need more operators and I can't push them any more because I can't afford to lose any more. . . . It was felt Dave did not have the right standards to drive the organization,'' said Hettel.
Tracy Davis, Hoffman's administrative assistant, recalled a time when Kiley criticized operators' work ethic. ''Wait a minute, Mike,'' she told him. ''These guys are tired. You try working six 12s, and you're on meds, and your one day off you have to stay up because you can't come back down.' ''
'MEDS' OR 'MIDS'?
Bernd Wollschlaeger, a North Miami Beach physician and addiction specialist, says ''the meds in question are probably amphetamines'' and would be ''very dangerous'' if used by operators of equipment. FPL's Waldron suggests the transcript may have a typographic error and Davis said ''mids.'' He says FPL has many programs in place to catch drug abusers.
Still, many employees complained they felt overworked. In one e-mail, shift supervisor Tim Jones erupted when asked to write a report in two days: ''I cannot possibly complete these actions . . . I have worked 16 straight hours and am scheduled to work 12 hours on one of my four days off as it is prior to annual requal next week. I still have evals to write for my shift, which I planned on completing on my own time off.''
In 2008, the head of the NRC, Dale Klein, complained that Turkey Point was seriously understaffed, with exhausted operators often working 72 hours or more a week.
Waldron says the utility always abides by NRC work guidelines and that by hiring additional operators, they now average less than 45 hours a week. NRC spokesman Ledford says the plant has added 20 operators in the past 12 months, which ''has substantially reduced the overtime hours.'' More operators are in training.
On Dec. 17, 2007, Kiley held his first big meeting with managers at a nearby country club. ''I put on one slide that said: 'Are you fully committed to improving the department's performance? Yes or no.' ''
Kiley went around the room, asking each manager. Each said yes, until he came to Paul Reimers, a veteran manager famous outside the plant for being a participant on the Wife Swap show. A show promo said the Reimers ''run their family of five children with military like precision.''
Kiley remembered Reimers saying, ''No, I'm not committed to improving the department's performance.''
Kiley said, ''OK. Well, you can leave.'' Reimers left. He was not allowed to return to the plant for three days.
During a break, Hoffman was upset when shift managers told him they realized that from then on they wouldn't dare reveal concerns Kiley didn't want to hear. ''That bothered me excessively.''
Davis, the administrative assistant: ''The first break, Dave immediately went to Mike and tried to explain . . . Paul's personality.'' He was the type who wouldn't automatically say yes. ''Dave fought to get Paul back the next day.''
Whitler said Hoffman was so upset that Whitler tried to calm him down. ''I didn't want him fired because he was like the bastion of sanity.''
THE BIG CHILL
Still, Hoffman complained to FPL human resources and, in a highly unusual event for a senior operator, he filed a confidential complaint with the NRC about the chilling effect the Reimers incident had on people who might want to talk about safety issues.
In his deposition, Kiley expressed regret. He said Reimers later told him he was already working far too much overtime. ''In reflecting back on it now, you know, . . . I could have probably handled that situation a little better.''
The NRC investigated and concluded Hoffman's fear ''was not substantiated. Although a few individuals expressed some discomfort with respect to their interactions with certain senior plant mangers, interview results indicated'' they still felt they could reveal safety problems ''without fear of retaliation.''
Still, the NRC report noted that FPL ''has acknowledged the need to improve communications to foster enhanced employee trust in FPL senior management.''
After the Reimers incident, executives further distanced themselves from Hoffman. ''Dave was not involved in some really important key decisions that were being made . . . specifically the rod positioning indications, and I thought that was unusual that the senior license holder was not involved,'' said Ware, the outside consultant.
A crew was working on the control-rod gauges around the clock ''and Dave Hoffman was excluded completely. . . . Mike Kiley did not consider Dave to be part of the team and that they were looking to replace him,'' said Ware.
Said Hoffman: ''I had been viewed as an impediment to the progress that they were trying to make at the plant.''
When Hoffman returned from Christmas vacation, he was told to spend at least two days a week in a training center, separated from the control room by two sets of razor wire and no-man's-land spaces. His supporters viewed this treatment as a period of exile. ''He's outside . . . out of mind,'' said Whitler.
Meanwhile, Paul Infanger, a nuclear engineer, had been assigned to do another evaluation of the Employee Concerns Program, which was supposedly designed to allow workers to talk about plant problems, anonymously if they chose.
LACK OF TRUST
For years, the NRC had been concerned about whether Turkey Point employees felt free to come forward with safety concerns without suffering repercussions. Whitler, the FPL analyst, said several earlier employee surveys showed ''they don't trust management. . . . They didn't think management respected employees. They didn't think they were fixing the plant.''
Infanger said his team found that ECM ''was not being thought of as an effective tool.'' Among the 200 workers who answered his survey, he found ''there was a very, very strong feeling that management retaliated [against] people who raised concerns.''
In March 2008, Vice President Jefferson ''got openly irate'' when he saw the survey, Infanger recalled. ''He was upset with all the weaknesses that made management look bad.''
A few days later, Infanger was fired. Court documents don't indicate why. Infanger didn't respond to a phone call. FPL's Waldron says only that ''all issues'' with Infanger's leaving the company ''have been resolved.''
In August, FPL replaced Jefferson with Kiley, who now is the top boss at Turkey Point.
The NRC reports it continues to closely monitor FPL's Employee Concerns Program. At a meeting two months ago with NRC officials, FPL reported employee attitudes are still a problem, partly because ''certain management actions have negatively impacted employee trust and resulted in a perception that production often takes precedence over safety.''
The October FPL report also said, ''Employees perceive that management has created an urgency to implement change and react immediately to issues without considering resources and work environment impact.'' FPL said it was taking strong corrective actions through mid-summer 2010 to improve employees' attitudes.
Page: G14
Provided By: The McClatchy Company
Index Terms: Institute of Nuclear Power Operations; Florida Power & Light; Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Court records reveal trouble at Turkey Point
Miami Herald, The (FL) - Monday, January 4, 2010
Author: JOHN DORSCHNER, dorschner@MiamiHerald.com
When Coleen Ware walked into Turkey Point, she was shocked to see that the indicators showing control rod positions looked like something out of an early '70s sci-fi movie.
On special assignment from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations to teach managers of the South Dade plant about safety, she was surprised by the aged indicators, which show the position of the rods in the reactor core -- a central measure about how the core is functioning.
''There are the old gauges . . . where . . . a needle that goes around and around,'' Ware testified, saying they were ''not very reliable.'' When operators looked at the indicators daily, ''they'd be stuck.
''So over the years, they developed the habit of pinging them to get them to move. . . . Well, that's not OK in a nuclear plant because you have to have reliable, you know, verification of where those rods are positioned. . . . That's a lesson from Three Mile Island,'' the worst nuclear disaster in American history.
In the hush-hush nuclear world, such insider details rarely, if ever, become public, but now a lawsuit has made public 2,000 pages of testimony that offer a fascinating window into the experiences, thoughts and frustrations of Turkey Point executives, employees and contract workers that reveal myriad problems.
Florida Power & Light, which operates the plant, says it's safe and all its actions are done according to federal regulation. ''Turkey Point has been operating for more than 30 years and has a very good safety record,'' says FPL spokesman Michael Waldron. All the control-rod indicators have now been ''updated or replaced and have extremely high reliability.''
NRC spokesman Joey Ledford spokesman said the NRC was aware of control rod position indication problems and FPL has upgraded them in Reactor Unit 4 and plans to upgrade them in Unit 3 next year, complying with all regulatory requirements.
Waldron emphasized that the transcripts from 17 people were made in 2008 by an investigator of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as part of a dispute between FPL and David Hoffman, its former senior licensed operator who quit abruptly, writing a late-night resignation letter saying he couldn't follow executives' demands that he do something he believed was extremely dangerous.
FPL is now suing Hoffman, seeking the return of a $50,000 bonus, and Hoffman is counter-suing. Hoffman also filed a complaint with the NRC, saying FPL had discriminated against him because he had raised concerns about safety.
After an investigation, the NRC reported it ''did not substantiate'' Hoffman's accusations. The federal regulatory authority also sided with the utility in several other issues that Hoffman had raised.
Some critics believe NRC strongly favors utilities. Vice President Joe Biden said in a 2007 interview, when he was a Delaware senator, that he had no confidence in the NRC. ''It's like getting homed -- coming into the small town and playing a basketball championship with the local refs.''
Hoffman started at Turkey Point in 1998, working his way up to become the senior operator, responsible for the plant's safe operation of the plant. In early 2008, he was earning $139,776 a year in base pay and was set to receive a $30,000 bonus in March.
Many of those who gave depositions spoke highly of him.
Tallman Whitler, an analyst brought in to improve the management system: ''Hoffman caught my eye because he had a commanding respect of the people that worked for him.''
Maria Lacal, another former operations manager: ''Dave is a very capable individual, extremely sharp, very knowledgeable, very dedicated to his job. . . . he needed to mature a little bit here and there.''
James Molden, a former operations manager, said Hoffman was ''very, very knowledgeable.'' Top executives ''were frustrated with Dave. . . . Dave would point out a lot of things that he was frustrated with. . . . There were never, you know, what I'll call happy moments. It was constantly 'This is what I need . . . and this is what I'm not getting.' ''
Michael Pearce, an FPL executive still with the utility, had a more negative view: ''David sometimes shoots from the hip, and his mouth will start before his brain engages.''
Ware, the outside consultant, praised Hoffman for ''coaching his shift managers to be more demanding with regard to equipment doing what it's designed to do, as opposed to various work-arounds, Rube Goldberg type methods for keeping the plant on line.''
Ware was dismayed at FPL's stance. ''Stuff wasn't getting fixed. . . . The message that came out of the leadership team was that there's nothing really wrong here. I mean it was just such a ridiculous message. . . . Everything comes down to dollars.''
In his deposition, Bill Jefferson, then the top executive at Turkey Point, said: ''I want to hear everything that's wrong with that power plant, and I want to fix everything that's wrong with the power plant.''
Still many employees were concerned that FPL was putting profits ahead of safety.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Shift manager Randy Flynn: ''Sometimes I think that the money was more important to the company than the people and resources. Yes I did.''
Whitler said many employees were fed up with the system. There were ''attrition rates of 30 percent a year. . . . There's a lot of brain drain walking out of the plant getting replaced by people with virtually no experience.''
Molden, the former operations manager, was continually concerned about the control rod indicators, which kept malfunctioning. He called several FPL executives, saying, ''We shouldn't be operating our plant at this standard.''
Upset by what they viewed as a lack of company support for safe operations, Molden and Mike Navin quit as operations managers. ''I left there because I didn't see the level of commitment to run the plant towards excellence, and Dave and I were of very like-minded,'' Navin recalled.
Waldron, the FPL spokesman, says, ''there is absolutely no scenario where we would put profits before safety.'' The utility invested $250 million to improve the plant from the beginning of 2008 through 2009, and Turkey Point is in compliance with all NRC requirements.
In late 2007, before this push began, FPL brought in Mike Kiley, a nuclear manager in New Hampshire, as general manager. In his deposition, Kiley said he had been ordered to deal with 1,700 items on the backlog list for repair. (Waldron says that the backlog is now down to 400 items, and only seven of them are considered essential for being fixed.)
At the time, Kiley said he quickly decided Hoffman ''was very resistant to the need for the department to change.''
William Hettel, a one-time operations manager: ''They did not look upon Dave favorably. I think Dave knew . . . things that needed to be done. He just felt we couldn't progress as fast'' as the top managers wanted.
''I think Dave's perspective was 'I need more operators and I can't push them any more because I can't afford to lose any more. . . . It was felt Dave did not have the right standards to drive the organization,'' said Hettel.
Tracy Davis, Hoffman's administrative assistant, recalled a time when Kiley criticized operators' work ethic. ''Wait a minute, Mike,'' she told him. ''These guys are tired. You try working six 12s, and you're on meds, and your one day off you have to stay up because you can't come back down.' ''
'MEDS' OR 'MIDS'?
Bernd Wollschlaeger, a North Miami Beach physician and addiction specialist, says ''the meds in question are probably amphetamines'' and would be ''very dangerous'' if used by operators of equipment. FPL's Waldron suggests the transcript may have a typographic error and Davis said ''mids.'' He says FPL has many programs in place to catch drug abusers.
Still, many employees complained they felt overworked. In one e-mail, shift supervisor Tim Jones erupted when asked to write a report in two days: ''I cannot possibly complete these actions . . . I have worked 16 straight hours and am scheduled to work 12 hours on one of my four days off as it is prior to annual requal next week. I still have evals to write for my shift, which I planned on completing on my own time off.''
In 2008, the head of the NRC, Dale Klein, complained that Turkey Point was seriously understaffed, with exhausted operators often working 72 hours or more a week.
Waldron says the utility always abides by NRC work guidelines and that by hiring additional operators, they now average less than 45 hours a week. NRC spokesman Ledford says the plant has added 20 operators in the past 12 months, which ''has substantially reduced the overtime hours.'' More operators are in training.
On Dec. 17, 2007, Kiley held his first big meeting with managers at a nearby country club. ''I put on one slide that said: 'Are you fully committed to improving the department's performance? Yes or no.' ''
Kiley went around the room, asking each manager. Each said yes, until he came to Paul Reimers, a veteran manager famous outside the plant for being a participant on the Wife Swap show. A show promo said the Reimers ''run their family of five children with military like precision.''
Kiley remembered Reimers saying, ''No, I'm not committed to improving the department's performance.''
Kiley said, ''OK. Well, you can leave.'' Reimers left. He was not allowed to return to the plant for three days.
During a break, Hoffman was upset when shift managers told him they realized that from then on they wouldn't dare reveal concerns Kiley didn't want to hear. ''That bothered me excessively.''
Davis, the administrative assistant: ''The first break, Dave immediately went to Mike and tried to explain . . . Paul's personality.'' He was the type who wouldn't automatically say yes. ''Dave fought to get Paul back the next day.''
Whitler said Hoffman was so upset that Whitler tried to calm him down. ''I didn't want him fired because he was like the bastion of sanity.''
THE BIG CHILL
Still, Hoffman complained to FPL human resources and, in a highly unusual event for a senior operator, he filed a confidential complaint with the NRC about the chilling effect the Reimers incident had on people who might want to talk about safety issues.
In his deposition, Kiley expressed regret. He said Reimers later told him he was already working far too much overtime. ''In reflecting back on it now, you know, . . . I could have probably handled that situation a little better.''
The NRC investigated and concluded Hoffman's fear ''was not substantiated. Although a few individuals expressed some discomfort with respect to their interactions with certain senior plant mangers, interview results indicated'' they still felt they could reveal safety problems ''without fear of retaliation.''
Still, the NRC report noted that FPL ''has acknowledged the need to improve communications to foster enhanced employee trust in FPL senior management.''
After the Reimers incident, executives further distanced themselves from Hoffman. ''Dave was not involved in some really important key decisions that were being made . . . specifically the rod positioning indications, and I thought that was unusual that the senior license holder was not involved,'' said Ware, the outside consultant.
A crew was working on the control-rod gauges around the clock ''and Dave Hoffman was excluded completely. . . . Mike Kiley did not consider Dave to be part of the team and that they were looking to replace him,'' said Ware.
Said Hoffman: ''I had been viewed as an impediment to the progress that they were trying to make at the plant.''
When Hoffman returned from Christmas vacation, he was told to spend at least two days a week in a training center, separated from the control room by two sets of razor wire and no-man's-land spaces. His supporters viewed this treatment as a period of exile. ''He's outside . . . out of mind,'' said Whitler.
Meanwhile, Paul Infanger, a nuclear engineer, had been assigned to do another evaluation of the Employee Concerns Program, which was supposedly designed to allow workers to talk about plant problems, anonymously if they chose.
LACK OF TRUST
For years, the NRC had been concerned about whether Turkey Point employees felt free to come forward with safety concerns without suffering repercussions. Whitler, the FPL analyst, said several earlier employee surveys showed ''they don't trust management. . . . They didn't think management respected employees. They didn't think they were fixing the plant.''
Infanger said his team found that ECM ''was not being thought of as an effective tool.'' Among the 200 workers who answered his survey, he found ''there was a very, very strong feeling that management retaliated [against] people who raised concerns.''
In March 2008, Vice President Jefferson ''got openly irate'' when he saw the survey, Infanger recalled. ''He was upset with all the weaknesses that made management look bad.''
A few days later, Infanger was fired. Court documents don't indicate why. Infanger didn't respond to a phone call. FPL's Waldron says only that ''all issues'' with Infanger's leaving the company ''have been resolved.''
In August, FPL replaced Jefferson with Kiley, who now is the top boss at Turkey Point.
The NRC reports it continues to closely monitor FPL's Employee Concerns Program. At a meeting two months ago with NRC officials, FPL reported employee attitudes are still a problem, partly because ''certain management actions have negatively impacted employee trust and resulted in a perception that production often takes precedence over safety.''
The October FPL report also said, ''Employees perceive that management has created an urgency to implement change and react immediately to issues without considering resources and work environment impact.'' FPL said it was taking strong corrective actions through mid-summer 2010 to improve employees' attitudes.
Page: G14
Provided By: The McClatchy Company
Index Terms: Institute of Nuclear Power Operations; Florida Power & Light; Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Protest of Turkey Point Nuclear this Saturday ... by gimleteye
The following announcement is from Sierra Club and the South Florida Wildlands Association.
What: Clean Energy Rally and Protest of the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant Expansion!
Florida Power and Light (FPL) is applying for an operating license to construct two new nuclear generators of over 1,000 Megawatts each on the shores of Biscayne Bay. Their application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also includes massive high voltage powerlines through densely populated sections of Miami-Dade and the eastern border of Everglades National Park.
With two million pounds of spent nuclear fuel already piled up on the shores of Biscayne Bay and a major nuclear disaster unfolding on the other side of the planet, this is not necessarily the "safe, clean and reliable source of electricity" touted on the FPL website.
See Sun-Sentinel preview article here.
When: Saturday, April 30, 2011 – 9 to 11:30 AM – community potluck, music, and kayaking in the mangroves of Biscayne Bay to follow.
Where: Homestead Bayfront County Park., 9698 SW 328th Street (N Canal Drive) Homestead, FL 33033
The Turkey Point Plant will be visible less than 2 miles away across Biscayne Bay.
Click here for location.
Schedule:
9:00 AM to 10 AM
Mock emergency evacuation of south Florida! Kayaks and canoes will be out on the water while nuclear refugees line up on the shore. Workers in hazmat suits will be checking evacuees for radiation exposure.
10 AM to 11 AM
Rally and press conference in support of safe, clean, and renewable energy and to say NO to the proposed expansion of the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant.
11:30 AM to ?
Join us for a community potluck, music and an afternoon of kayaking along the beautiful flats and mangroves of Biscayne Bay!
Who: South Florida Wildlands Association will join community and environmental leaders from throughout our region. Speakers for the rally and press conference include:
Phil Stoddard – Mayor of South Miami
George Cavros – Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Laura Reynolds – Tropical Audubon
Rhonda Roff – Save It Now Glades
Barry White – Citizens Allied for Clean Energy
And a request - South Florida Wildlands Association operates on a shoestring budget. We are a Florida registered non-profit completely dependent on donations from the public to carry out our work. If you wish to help - and even a $5 donation is helpful - please visit our donation page below and contribute online or via check.
For more information on the nuclear issue - please see our letter/essay below. Hope to see many of you this Saturday! (Please click 'read more')
Dear Friends,
April 26th, 2011 marked the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl (Ukraine) which released highly radioactive material over a wide swath of our planet. While the initial explosion led to a small number of immediate deaths, secondary impacts due to wide-spread radiation exposure have been much harder to pin down. Numerous studies from academics, government agencies, and environmental groups have produced varying estimates - ranging as high as 985,000. This is in addition to widespread ecological impacts to plants, animals, and water; chronic medical conditions; chromosomal defects; and mental health problems (apparently due to feelings of being “tainted” or “doomed” by the exposure). A large exclusion zone – the “Zone of Alienation” – with a radius of 30 kilometers (19 miles) around the former plant remains to this day. Plans are currently underway to redesign and replace the aging concrete tomb which now encloses the still highly radioactive site, while
a strange new form of “adventure tourism” – visits to the abandoned city of Pripyat closest to the destroyed Chernobyl plant – is gaining in popularity.
See map of impacted areas near the Chernobyl site here (click to enlarge):
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-zGXfLQMgx9m8U%406395984-hG7xzkPlFoPEU
Two events make this particular anniversary special. First is the ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. While initially portrayed as a relatively minor incident soon to be brought under control, actual events have revealed a situation far more dangerous. Numerous nuclear generators have been impacted and the amount of radioactive material on site - in the form of thousands of active, spent and new nuclear fuel rods - is enormous in comparison to the quantity of nuclear material at Chernobyl at the time of the explosion. The slow disintegration (and partial meltdown) of radioactive material inside the damaged structures, ongoing leaks (just today a new leak was found in reactor #1) and the need to dump thousands of tons of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean have led to a nightmare with still unknown long term consequences for both humans and the planetary ecosystem. Of the dozens of accidents reported at civilian nuclear power
plants over the decades, Fukushima Daiichi is the second to be rated a “7” on the scale used by the International Atomic Energy Agency. As in Chernobyl, a no entry zone has been established around the perimeter of the plant (20 kilometers or 12 miles – 30 kilometers “recommended”) while the U.S. British and Australian governments have advised nationals living within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the stricken plant to evacuate. The cleanup is expected to take decades and many billions of dollars.
The second reason south Floridians in particular should be aware of this day, is that our local utility company, Florida Power and Light (FPL), is currently applying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a Combined Operating License (COL) to construct two new massive nuclear generators on the shores of Biscayne Bay (right next door to Biscayne National Park) - only 25 miles from downtown Miami and 50 miles from downtown Ft. Lauderdale. These new 1,100 MW reactors would be added to two old reactors which have already accumulated more than 2 million pounds of spent – but still highly active – radioactive fuel. No off-site storage facilities exist. See article below regarding a $70,000 fine recently levied against FPL by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for failure to fully protect this volatile component of south Florida’s environment.
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-51TcgPOWRZWG6%406395985-p6sNL8VPE.dNg
It should be noted that FPL’s license application for the new reactors also includes a new high voltage powerline through densely populated sections of Miami-Dade County, plus three massive lines across what is currently the eastern edge of Everglades National Park. Much more about that soon, when the National Park Service solicits public opinion regarding that part of the plan.
While all agree that catastrophic nuclear accidents are unlikely on a day to day basis, clearly the more generators there are, the longer they operate, and the more nuclear material which accumulates on a site, the greater the chance of a large mishap. Like all industries, accidents due to human error, equipment failure, design flaws (the new AP1000 reactors contemplated for Turkey Point have never before been built), malicious behavior, and natural disasters have all been a part of the nuclear safety record at Turkey Point and elsewhere. The effort to mine, process and refine uranium (even when pure, natural uranium contains nowhere near the concentration of the Uranium 235 isotope necessary to set off and run the nuclear chain reactions which produce power) also take their toll on human beings and the environment.
When south Floridians return home at the end of a workday, the main thing they hope and expect from their electricity supply is that it is there. If any further thought is given, it would generally be – “how much is this stuff costing me?” Asking local residents to assess the precise risks to their homes, community and surrounding ecosystem from their electricity supply is simply ridiculous. A quick scan on the internet will reveal that scientists worldwide are all over the map on the degree of danger nuclear plants pose and on how much radiation is “safe” (though the medical consensus seems to be that there is NO SAFE LEVEL of radiation exposure across a population – indicated by current concerns over even routine medical diagnostic procedures which involve radiation). For comprehensive information on radiation exposure, please see a recent article by Dr. Susan Blumenthal, former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States:
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-ErCUxx/evIyag%406395986-eJR/HZor6LOF2
FPL’s energy resources are already massive – and growing larger all the time. Among their south Florida holdings is the largest fossil fuel power plant in the U.S. – a 3,705 MW gas and oil plant in Martin County. Topping even that behemoth is the 3,750 MW gas fired plant still under construction in Palm Beach County. Located just 1000 feet from the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge – the only intact remnant of the northern Everglades – the plant will be the largest gas fired plant in the country upon completion. And this in addition to expanded capacity already approved at the company’s four existing nuclear generators at Turkey Point and St. Lucie.
Enough is enough. The Sunshine State has more solar potential by far than any state in the eastern United States. In spite of our cloud cover, major parts of south Florida rival the southwest in terms of “insolation”. Yet our use of solar and renewable energy in general (outside of significant burning of garbage to produce electricity) remains negligible.
If not now – when? It's time to turn the corner and actually begin building the “green energy economy” that creates not only electricity and jobs, but is compatible with the ecosystem which sustains south Florida. Our technology has brought clean, safe, and viable solutions within our reach (and at least part of that solution is ENERGY CONSERVATION). Let’s do it.
See also 2007 article from the Institute of Southern Studies – “Solar Power in the Sunshine State”:
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-jB5FO3QKXIGlg%406395987-1J4r17blQ4Qh6
Folks wishing to weigh in on FPL’s license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the two new reactors – the application has not yet been approved – can do so by sending comments to the following email address:
Hearingdocket@nrc.gov
You will be making a “Limited Appearance Statement” to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board and your comments will become a part of the docket containing the public record. Please place “Turkey Point Units 6 and 7” in the subject line as well as the body of your email as the above email address handles public comments on nuclear power plant applications nationwide.
Best regards,
Matt Schwartz
Executive Director
South Florida Wildlands Association
P.O. Box 30211
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33303
southfloridawild.org
954-634-7173
What: Clean Energy Rally and Protest of the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant Expansion!
Florida Power and Light (FPL) is applying for an operating license to construct two new nuclear generators of over 1,000 Megawatts each on the shores of Biscayne Bay. Their application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also includes massive high voltage powerlines through densely populated sections of Miami-Dade and the eastern border of Everglades National Park.
With two million pounds of spent nuclear fuel already piled up on the shores of Biscayne Bay and a major nuclear disaster unfolding on the other side of the planet, this is not necessarily the "safe, clean and reliable source of electricity" touted on the FPL website.
See Sun-Sentinel preview article here.
When: Saturday, April 30, 2011 – 9 to 11:30 AM – community potluck, music, and kayaking in the mangroves of Biscayne Bay to follow.
Where: Homestead Bayfront County Park., 9698 SW 328th Street (N Canal Drive) Homestead, FL 33033
The Turkey Point Plant will be visible less than 2 miles away across Biscayne Bay.
Click here for location.
Schedule:
9:00 AM to 10 AM
Mock emergency evacuation of south Florida! Kayaks and canoes will be out on the water while nuclear refugees line up on the shore. Workers in hazmat suits will be checking evacuees for radiation exposure.
10 AM to 11 AM
Rally and press conference in support of safe, clean, and renewable energy and to say NO to the proposed expansion of the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant.
11:30 AM to ?
Join us for a community potluck, music and an afternoon of kayaking along the beautiful flats and mangroves of Biscayne Bay!
Who: South Florida Wildlands Association will join community and environmental leaders from throughout our region. Speakers for the rally and press conference include:
Phil Stoddard – Mayor of South Miami
George Cavros – Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Laura Reynolds – Tropical Audubon
Rhonda Roff – Save It Now Glades
Barry White – Citizens Allied for Clean Energy
And a request - South Florida Wildlands Association operates on a shoestring budget. We are a Florida registered non-profit completely dependent on donations from the public to carry out our work. If you wish to help - and even a $5 donation is helpful - please visit our donation page below and contribute online or via check.
For more information on the nuclear issue - please see our letter/essay below. Hope to see many of you this Saturday! (Please click 'read more')
Dear Friends,
April 26th, 2011 marked the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl (Ukraine) which released highly radioactive material over a wide swath of our planet. While the initial explosion led to a small number of immediate deaths, secondary impacts due to wide-spread radiation exposure have been much harder to pin down. Numerous studies from academics, government agencies, and environmental groups have produced varying estimates - ranging as high as 985,000. This is in addition to widespread ecological impacts to plants, animals, and water; chronic medical conditions; chromosomal defects; and mental health problems (apparently due to feelings of being “tainted” or “doomed” by the exposure). A large exclusion zone – the “Zone of Alienation” – with a radius of 30 kilometers (19 miles) around the former plant remains to this day. Plans are currently underway to redesign and replace the aging concrete tomb which now encloses the still highly radioactive site, while
a strange new form of “adventure tourism” – visits to the abandoned city of Pripyat closest to the destroyed Chernobyl plant – is gaining in popularity.
See map of impacted areas near the Chernobyl site here (click to enlarge):
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-zGXfLQMgx9m8U%406395984-hG7xzkPlFoPEU
Two events make this particular anniversary special. First is the ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. While initially portrayed as a relatively minor incident soon to be brought under control, actual events have revealed a situation far more dangerous. Numerous nuclear generators have been impacted and the amount of radioactive material on site - in the form of thousands of active, spent and new nuclear fuel rods - is enormous in comparison to the quantity of nuclear material at Chernobyl at the time of the explosion. The slow disintegration (and partial meltdown) of radioactive material inside the damaged structures, ongoing leaks (just today a new leak was found in reactor #1) and the need to dump thousands of tons of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean have led to a nightmare with still unknown long term consequences for both humans and the planetary ecosystem. Of the dozens of accidents reported at civilian nuclear power
plants over the decades, Fukushima Daiichi is the second to be rated a “7” on the scale used by the International Atomic Energy Agency. As in Chernobyl, a no entry zone has been established around the perimeter of the plant (20 kilometers or 12 miles – 30 kilometers “recommended”) while the U.S. British and Australian governments have advised nationals living within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the stricken plant to evacuate. The cleanup is expected to take decades and many billions of dollars.
The second reason south Floridians in particular should be aware of this day, is that our local utility company, Florida Power and Light (FPL), is currently applying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a Combined Operating License (COL) to construct two new massive nuclear generators on the shores of Biscayne Bay (right next door to Biscayne National Park) - only 25 miles from downtown Miami and 50 miles from downtown Ft. Lauderdale. These new 1,100 MW reactors would be added to two old reactors which have already accumulated more than 2 million pounds of spent – but still highly active – radioactive fuel. No off-site storage facilities exist. See article below regarding a $70,000 fine recently levied against FPL by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for failure to fully protect this volatile component of south Florida’s environment.
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-51TcgPOWRZWG6%406395985-p6sNL8VPE.dNg
It should be noted that FPL’s license application for the new reactors also includes a new high voltage powerline through densely populated sections of Miami-Dade County, plus three massive lines across what is currently the eastern edge of Everglades National Park. Much more about that soon, when the National Park Service solicits public opinion regarding that part of the plan.
While all agree that catastrophic nuclear accidents are unlikely on a day to day basis, clearly the more generators there are, the longer they operate, and the more nuclear material which accumulates on a site, the greater the chance of a large mishap. Like all industries, accidents due to human error, equipment failure, design flaws (the new AP1000 reactors contemplated for Turkey Point have never before been built), malicious behavior, and natural disasters have all been a part of the nuclear safety record at Turkey Point and elsewhere. The effort to mine, process and refine uranium (even when pure, natural uranium contains nowhere near the concentration of the Uranium 235 isotope necessary to set off and run the nuclear chain reactions which produce power) also take their toll on human beings and the environment.
When south Floridians return home at the end of a workday, the main thing they hope and expect from their electricity supply is that it is there. If any further thought is given, it would generally be – “how much is this stuff costing me?” Asking local residents to assess the precise risks to their homes, community and surrounding ecosystem from their electricity supply is simply ridiculous. A quick scan on the internet will reveal that scientists worldwide are all over the map on the degree of danger nuclear plants pose and on how much radiation is “safe” (though the medical consensus seems to be that there is NO SAFE LEVEL of radiation exposure across a population – indicated by current concerns over even routine medical diagnostic procedures which involve radiation). For comprehensive information on radiation exposure, please see a recent article by Dr. Susan Blumenthal, former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States:
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-ErCUxx/evIyag%406395986-eJR/HZor6LOF2
FPL’s energy resources are already massive – and growing larger all the time. Among their south Florida holdings is the largest fossil fuel power plant in the U.S. – a 3,705 MW gas and oil plant in Martin County. Topping even that behemoth is the 3,750 MW gas fired plant still under construction in Palm Beach County. Located just 1000 feet from the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge – the only intact remnant of the northern Everglades – the plant will be the largest gas fired plant in the country upon completion. And this in addition to expanded capacity already approved at the company’s four existing nuclear generators at Turkey Point and St. Lucie.
Enough is enough. The Sunshine State has more solar potential by far than any state in the eastern United States. In spite of our cloud cover, major parts of south Florida rival the southwest in terms of “insolation”. Yet our use of solar and renewable energy in general (outside of significant burning of garbage to produce electricity) remains negligible.
If not now – when? It's time to turn the corner and actually begin building the “green energy economy” that creates not only electricity and jobs, but is compatible with the ecosystem which sustains south Florida. Our technology has brought clean, safe, and viable solutions within our reach (and at least part of that solution is ENERGY CONSERVATION). Let’s do it.
See also 2007 article from the Institute of Southern Studies – “Solar Power in the Sunshine State”:
http://m1e.net/c?86943521-jB5FO3QKXIGlg%406395987-1J4r17blQ4Qh6
Folks wishing to weigh in on FPL’s license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the two new reactors – the application has not yet been approved – can do so by sending comments to the following email address:
Hearingdocket@nrc.gov
You will be making a “Limited Appearance Statement” to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board and your comments will become a part of the docket containing the public record. Please place “Turkey Point Units 6 and 7” in the subject line as well as the body of your email as the above email address handles public comments on nuclear power plant applications nationwide.
Best regards,
Matt Schwartz
Executive Director
South Florida Wildlands Association
P.O. Box 30211
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33303
southfloridawild.org
954-634-7173
Federal Judge Slams Governor Scott. By Geniusofdespair
Press Release from Sierra Club:
BREAKING NEWS: Judge slams Gov. Scott, vows to turn over state water quality enforcement to EPA
In a 117 page ruling yesterday, Federal judge Alan Gold blasted Governor Rick Scott for resisting water quality standards set by the EPA and said he intends to strip the state of its clean water enforcement duties and return them to the federal government.
“The primary purpose of this latest Order is to put into the hands of the EPA all the resources necessary to enforce its action plan and to implement its full power under the congressional Clean Water Act,” wrote Gold.
“It is time now for this next significant step to occur. The EPA has represented that it wants to act. It must be given the opportunity to do so,” added Judge Gold.
“It is now, and has been for a while, time to take concrete and substantial progress toward preserving the Everglades before this national treasure is permanently destroyed to the extent of irreparable destruction,” Gold said.
Gold’s ruling is part of a 2004 lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.
-- Jon Ullman, Sierra Club South Florida/Everglades Senior Organizer
BREAKING NEWS: Judge slams Gov. Scott, vows to turn over state water quality enforcement to EPA
In a 117 page ruling yesterday, Federal judge Alan Gold blasted Governor Rick Scott for resisting water quality standards set by the EPA and said he intends to strip the state of its clean water enforcement duties and return them to the federal government.
“The primary purpose of this latest Order is to put into the hands of the EPA all the resources necessary to enforce its action plan and to implement its full power under the congressional Clean Water Act,” wrote Gold.
“It is time now for this next significant step to occur. The EPA has represented that it wants to act. It must be given the opportunity to do so,” added Judge Gold.
“It is now, and has been for a while, time to take concrete and substantial progress toward preserving the Everglades before this national treasure is permanently destroyed to the extent of irreparable destruction,” Gold said.
Gold’s ruling is part of a 2004 lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.
-- Jon Ullman, Sierra Club South Florida/Everglades Senior Organizer
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Miami Dade Transit Chief Retiring. By Geniusofdespair
After Roosevelt Bradley was fired by Mayor Alvarez, July 10, 2007 it was announced that Harpal Kapoor was appointed to the permanent position of Miami-Dade Transit Director. Well now he is gone, retired. Two down...
Has the Downturn Filtered Down to Lobbyist Fees? By Geniusofdespair
Miami Beach gives us a glimpse of Lobbyist fees by requiring Lobbyists to report them. Here is what they are charging in 2011. Compare it to June 2010, last time I reported on their fees:
Danny Aaronson charged Club Madonna $400 an hour.
Rafael Andrade charged Sun & Fun for the Storefront Sign Ordinance $20,000 flat fee.
Charles Benson charged EDY and Lincoln Corner LLC $1,000 an hour.
Ron Book said he didn't get paid a fee to lobby for Mike Dee, CEO Miami Dolphins.
Jonathan Cardello got an $805,080 flat fee working for South Beach Heights.
David Custin gets $5,000 a quarter working for Choice Environmental Services.
Lucia Dougherty charged 1319 LLC $675 an hour.
Robert Goodman charges Art Basel $84,000 a year.
Neisen Kasdin charges between $400 and $580 an hour for his 17 clients.
Michael Larkin charged his 12 clients in the mid $400.
Brian May charged Imperial Parking a $22,500 flat fee.
Dusty Melton charged General Hauling Services $1,000 a month.
Jimmy Morales charged Patina Restaurant Group $400 an hour.
Alexander Tachmes Charged his 39 clients mostly in the $400 - $450 range.
The fees seem to be in the same range as last year. I don't think Lobbyists are feeling the downturn one bit, do you?
Rock Mining in Florida, poised for the big kill ... by gimleteye
The theme, "Florida for sale!", is prominently on display in Tallahassee by the rock mining industry. What the industry is poised to do, is to exempt permitting from local regulations.
Rock mining regulations are a sore point in Miami-Dade where the industry's footprint is most visible from above, at the far edge of Miami International Airport. Although the industry itself is secretive and extraordinarily wealthy, it is no secret that zoning changes from agricultural land to rock mining is a precursor to changes in order to build more platted subdivisions. This tried and true formula works especially well when it is time for industry to beat back wetlands protections: first you drain the wetlands, then you dig out the lime rock, then you build houses around your lifeless water features otherwise known as "lakes".
The Miami-Dade County Commission, under former commissioner Natacha Seijas' direction, virtually shut out the public from the local regulatory process long ago. People complained too much. People like homeowners in West Dade whose foundations cracked and interiors parted ways from joists and drywall due to blasting by rock miners.
So between zoning issues and comprehensive land use planning -- also being eviscerated by the state legislature and barely legal governor Rick Scott-- and homeowners who happen to live near rock mines (like the ones who live near the proposed Cemex expansion in West Dade), it is fascinating that the industry finds its top priority is to pre-empt local regulations. Of course, the builders and developers and wrecking crew generally favor local control, unless they can get an easier path to permitting at the state level. Blame the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries, the Florida Engineering Society, and the Wetlands Mitigation Banking Alliance.
One of my top five stories about rock mining (largely consolidated today under ownership by foreign corporations) occurred during the time I was leading opposition to a Lennar plan to build a community of 15,000 on Card Sound Road called Florida City Commons. Environmentalists had been struggling to protect this area crucial for protection of the nearby waters of Biscayne National Park for decades. Congress had long acknowledged its importance for Everglades restoration. Environmentalists were imploring federal agencies to prohibit the expansion of rock mining through wetlands destruction, when on February 4, 2006 I literally stumbled on the carcass of a dead panther on the side of the road, a stone's throw from the proposed site. The photo above is one I took that night.
The county commission, again led by Seijas, Barbara Jordan and the unreformable majority, had rolled over. State agencies from the water management district to the Florida Department of Community Affairs had been ineffectual at best and complicit at worst. The US Fish and Wildlife Service not only refused to write a jeopardy opinion for the panther in the area, managers sensitive to political interference re-assigned scientists who advocated the measure be brought to bear against development of wetlands there. The end of the story: agencies that wouldn't block wealthy rock miners from expanding in panther habitat in the early 2000's recently erected a twelve foot fence topped with barbed wire on the widened 18 Mile Stretch to the Florida Keys to certify their missions, including Florida's, to "protect" the Florida panther. What you see is through that fence is Administrative Fraud at a grand level. It stretches all the way to Tallahassee. These thoughts were on my mind on a recent trip into the 10,000 Islands and Everglades National Park. So few birds. So many catfish. You don't need a GPS or chart to tell you the direction the state is headed. That sound of blasting from Tallahassee? It is the patrimony of Florida that GOP extremists are blowing up just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan.
(March 1, 2001 (AP): Using everything from tanks to rocket launchers, Taliban troops fanned out across the country Thursday to destroy all statues, including two 5th-century statues of Buddha carved into a mountainside. Despite international outrage, troops and other officials began demolishing images, which they say are contrary to Islam, in the capital of Kabul as well as in Jalalabad, Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni and Bamiyan, said Qadradullah Jamal, the Taliban's information minister. "The destruction work will be done by any means available to them," he said. "All the statues all over the country will be destroyed.")
Monday, April 25, 2011
The Herald Should Look at Storm Surge Data. By Geniusofdespair
NOAA stated the Storm Surge near Burger King during Hurricane Andrew was about 16 feet but they also acknowledge the equipment measuring devices were destroyed by the hurricane, in areas nearby the surge was recorded at 8 to 10 feet.
As of September 30, 2005, official storm surge data for both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were still pending, but it’s likely that Katrina’s storm surge values will surpass that of Camille’s record 24.3 foot storm surge. Again, the tides gauges were destroyed during Katrina, making it difficult to get accurate storm surge estimates according to Stephen Baig, NOAA hurricane and storm surge expert at the NOAA National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. They estimate the surge could have been as high as 30 feet. 28-30 feet Katrina (a strong category 3), 16 feet surge Andrew (category 5) --- Big difference for a coastal power plant built at close to sea level. Maybe the Herald should rethink their cheer-leader editorial today about Turkey Point's nuclear expansion:
The plant has already survived a direct hit from a Category 5 hurricane (Andrew, 1992) and the accompanying storm surge.
Herald: Andrew did not have a big storm surge for a Category 5 hurricane. Wilma had an 8 foot surge and it was only a category 3 hurricane. We were lucky with Andrew that the storm surge was minimal considering its size.
As of September 30, 2005, official storm surge data for both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were still pending, but it’s likely that Katrina’s storm surge values will surpass that of Camille’s record 24.3 foot storm surge. Again, the tides gauges were destroyed during Katrina, making it difficult to get accurate storm surge estimates according to Stephen Baig, NOAA hurricane and storm surge expert at the NOAA National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. They estimate the surge could have been as high as 30 feet. 28-30 feet Katrina (a strong category 3), 16 feet surge Andrew (category 5) --- Big difference for a coastal power plant built at close to sea level. Maybe the Herald should rethink their cheer-leader editorial today about Turkey Point's nuclear expansion:
The plant has already survived a direct hit from a Category 5 hurricane (Andrew, 1992) and the accompanying storm surge.
Herald: Andrew did not have a big storm surge for a Category 5 hurricane. Wilma had an 8 foot surge and it was only a category 3 hurricane. We were lucky with Andrew that the storm surge was minimal considering its size.
Miami-Dade County Pubs: Where are they getting their money? By Geniusofdespair
I reported last week that Lobbyist Ron Book was giving to the Republicans and not the Democrats. I decided to look at who else is giving to the Republicans. In the past two reports they collected over $100,000 and spend just about that much. The Miami-Dade Democrats during the same time perior (8/20/2010 through 3/31/2011) took in about $20,000. So who is giving to the local Pubs besides Ron Book:
Yahoo Inc. $5,000 (this one has left me speechless I guess YAHOO SUCKS!)
Gold Coast Beverages (Frank Schwiep CEO) $10,000
West Flager Associates (Gaming) $3,500
Capital Gains Corp. (Found an LLC, Mgr. Cecilia Curbelo, once Carlos) $5,000
Holland & Knight LLP $1,500
Carlisle Development Group $2,500
West Flagler Associates $1,250
Dosal Tobacco Corp. (they have a sweet deal in Florida) $10,000
Fuentes Consulting Group $2,500 (Lobbyists)
Palm Beach County Fire PAC $2,500
Las Vegas Sands Corp. $5,000
Hialeah Services $5,000 (John Brunetti, Hialeah Race Track)
Arrizurietta & Associates $1,000
Becker & Poliakoff $2,500
Tate Enterprises $5,000
Robert Levy & Associates $3,000
Going back to the prior report 5/5/2010 - 8/19/2010:
Mardi Gras Gaming $2,500
Gustavo Barreiro $150
Becker & Poliakoff $2,500
Julio Robaina TGO $150
Towncare Dental Partnership $5,000
Esteban Bovo (Running for District 13 seat) $5,000
Congressman David Rivera $30,000
Miguel Diaz de la Portilla $1,750
Eric Fresen $1,500
MCCI Group (Jose Armas Manager) $5,000
Quantum Results $1,500 (Al Lorenzo)
Florida Crystals Corp. $1,500
Professional Firefighters PAC $5,000
Fairway View Associates LTD (Brunetti again, Hialeah Racetrack
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Gilded in Fool's Gold: Herman Echevarria .... by gimleteye
There is no institutional memory at The Miami Herald. Sunday's puff piece on Herman Echevarria is breathless and vapid as the reality TV show featuring his wife: both suffer from overdoses of self-aggrandizement and predict poorly for the future. Echevarria remade himself from Hialeah pol to advertisement guru. Really? Who are his clients and what has he done? What is known is that Echavarria's singular accomplishment helped wreck Miami-Dade: he was Svengali and major domo, as Armando Guttierez is today for a host of politicians, for Alex Penelas. Penelas, the former county commissioner and mayor, turned a promising political career into a national disgrace when he and Echevarria flew to Spain "on business" at the very moment the 2000 presidential election hinged on GOP operatives helicoptered in from DC Congressional offices to do in the recount in downtown Miami. In Spain, on business? Really, Mr. Echevarria. What kind of business was more important than being here where you and Penelas belonged? THAT is the story the Herald never wrote. Nor does today's report hint at the scandals that plagued Penelas' administration and the miserable politics that infected the county or Echevarria's role in the shadows. (One of the minor scandals, for example: the betrayal by Penelas of commitments made to the public for land use to benefit the public around the Heat/Arison Arena. Remember, that, Herald editors?)
What was Echevarria's achievement, other than to be the first among many lobbyists at a time when Miami Dade was carved up like portions of a roast pig to insiders? The most telling detail in the Herald story: Echevarria and his wife were married at the resort Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, "a playground for well-to-do Cuban exiles." Come on, Herald. You can do better than that! Casa de Campo is owned by the Fanjul sugar billionaires who polluted the Everglades and poisoned national politics. Was Echevarria's wedding a gift from the Fanjuls whose other routine investments in Miami-Dade politics and lobbyists continue to this day? (What about reporting THAT? In our search engine, type 'Sugar Babies'.) "What happens in Campo, stays in Campo." And what happens in the public rehabilitation of one closely connect with so much of what's wrong with Miami-Dade should be vetted by editors before being gilded in fool's gold.
What was Echevarria's achievement, other than to be the first among many lobbyists at a time when Miami Dade was carved up like portions of a roast pig to insiders? The most telling detail in the Herald story: Echevarria and his wife were married at the resort Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, "a playground for well-to-do Cuban exiles." Come on, Herald. You can do better than that! Casa de Campo is owned by the Fanjul sugar billionaires who polluted the Everglades and poisoned national politics. Was Echevarria's wedding a gift from the Fanjuls whose other routine investments in Miami-Dade politics and lobbyists continue to this day? (What about reporting THAT? In our search engine, type 'Sugar Babies'.) "What happens in Campo, stays in Campo." And what happens in the public rehabilitation of one closely connect with so much of what's wrong with Miami-Dade should be vetted by editors before being gilded in fool's gold.
Happy Easter. By Geniusofdespair
This is as close as I get to religion. They sing to God about a son...close enough.
Link to video. Boe can hit Colm Wilkinson's high note at the end. But also check out Colm Wilkinson, this is the best version (he is younger in this one), he was the original 1980 cast member in Les Miserables.
A battle of the Tenors! Which one is better (ignore the quality of the video).
Link to video. Boe can hit Colm Wilkinson's high note at the end. But also check out Colm Wilkinson, this is the best version (he is younger in this one), he was the original 1980 cast member in Les Miserables.
A battle of the Tenors! Which one is better (ignore the quality of the video).
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