Meet Your State Editor Bill Dillon State Editor for Florida Commentary Conservatism and Natural Law/Rights

Florida Supreme Court rules against Crist in judicial spat. Crist had held out for more diversity on the Central Florida appeals court.

Orlando Sentinel, 2 July 2009

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Gov. Charlie Crist has to fill a Central Florida appeals court opening from the original list of six nominees, and can't simply reject the names because he wanted a more diverse slate of candidates.

The governor had demanded more racially diverse candidates last December when he rejected a list of six white lawyers to fill a vacancy on the Fifth District Court of Appeal based in Daytona Beach, a vacancy created by the December retirement of Judge Robert Pleus of Windermere.

Crist's move angered many in the legal community, who fear that allowing governors to reject names submitted by judicial nominating commissions would undermine checks and balances between the two branches of government.

>> Read more at Florida News Page

Rivals face ethics charges, Complaints against Sink, McCollum allege unauthorized use of state planes.

Florida Capital News, 2 July 2009

Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Republican and Democratic rivals respectively in the 2010 race for governor, are now the targets of ethics complaints charging that they used state airplanes for personal travel.

Kenneth Quinnell, a member of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee, filed a complaint Tuesday against McCollum charging that some of his flights on state aircraft in the past few years were a, "misuse of his public position."

The complaint mirrors one filed June 29 against Sink by Jose Blas Lorenzo, an attorney for the state Department of Education.

Both complaints stem from an investigation by the St. Petersburg Times-Miami Herald capital bureau that concluded that both Cabinet members improperly used state airplanes to commute to their Central Florida homes, often by diverting them to nearby airports after flying on official business.

>> Read more at Florida News Page

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