BEWARE A FRIENDLY GUY WITH A SALES PITCH

I am sitting here shaking my head and beating myself up for failure to do due diligence when approached by a representative by the name of Travis Lipp to change my credit card processing.

I was happy with the system I was using but always willing to upgrade to make my business more efficient and to save money on all the necessities of doing business.

Travis approached me under the guise of advertising, and I could see how he tied the credit processing in with advertising via printed coupons from the terminal but in all honesty it was credit card processing.

So he gave the pitch promising lower fees with almost identical service, there was a $15 per month fee that I would be charged but when I figured it in with the prices it was still a better deal.

Signed up and the nightmare began the first weekend we used the service, I am still in contact with the processing company, they seem to be willing to work with me at this time to cancel my services with them.

What this letter is about is Travis Lipp I have called his number, 813-417-6221 again and again, I have left text messages and ask for his assistance in figuring out the huge list of charges and fees that I was told did not exist. I have been patient and polite leaving voicemail after voicemail text after text. When he wanted my money he was far more attentive. I want to have a serious discussion about all of the fees, and late deposits that are in direct contrast to his promises.

So I am writing everyone who would be dealing with Travis Lipp to use caution and to check reviews, and not just jump in based on a friendly guy who just wants to make a living and help small business succeed.

Check out this site to get in depth information and check out Eliot Management Group and their ratings.

https://www.cardpaymentoptions.com/credit-card-processing/worst-merchant-accounts/

Once again Eliot is working with me at this time, I will update this after my account issues are resolved.

Feel free to contact me and ask more questions, and TRAVIS LIPP in Tampa Florida, Sales Representative for Eliot Management Group please contact me, return a call or text. I would love to talk with you to find out if you were misinformed by the company, or just lied to me.

Fla. Gov. Scott’s Undisclosed Interest In Zika Mosquito Control Company

(Editor’s note: While the governor of Puerto Rico is turning away Naled and not letting them spray it on HIS people or any of the island, Rick Scott seems like a “Spray happy usual suspect” as one local reporter called him (some think he should be jailed because of the conduct of his corporations in the past). Read on.)
According to FloridaBullDog.org (a big publication here in the state), “Gov. Rick Scott has an undisclosed financial interest in a Zika mosquito control company in which his wife, Florida First Lady Ann Scott, owns a multi-million dollar stake through a private investment firm she co-owns.”
That’s right folks, it appears Scott isn’t just concerned about the well-being of Floridians but the cash to be made via Mosquito Control Services LLC of Metairie, LA. Perhaps that was a large part of the reason that he signed an executive order, on June 23rd, which allocated $26.2 million in state emergency funds for Zika preparedness.
MCS, whose services include monitoring and aerial spraying, may still benefit from Florida government funds- we just don’t know because they haven’t responded to requests for comment. We do know that the company is not a registered state vendor.
But that is really the tip of this disgusting iceberg.
From the article:

“Ann Scott’s large stake in MCS is via G. Scott Capital Partners, an investment firm that boasts $291 million of client assets. The firm manages several private equity funds and various “family accounts primarily comprised of trusts and family entities,” according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records.
The Florida Bulldog reported in 2014 that Scott Capital, as it is known online, is operated by a trio of men who once worked at Richard L. Scott Investments, the private equity firm where Gov. Scott made millions for himself and his family putting together big-money investment deals when he was in the private sector.
Scott Capital posts its portfolio online. All nine listed companies are current and former investments of the governor and/or Mrs. Scott, including Mosquito Control Services.”

Lovely.
But Ann doesn’t just stop there. She’s also “employed” by the firm she’s a co-owner of. That means she just funnels the money into the money she owns as, “…an interior decorator and owner of AS Interiors LLC, as a “passive investor” in G. Scott Capital. Gregory Scott owns 50 to 75 percent of the Delaware holding company that owns 100 percent of G. Scott Capital, according to the SEC. The First Lady owns the rest through the Frances Annette Scott Revocable Trust, which owns Tally 1, a Delaware company that in turn owns 25 to 50 percent of G. Scott Holdings LLC.” Has your head started spinning yet?
Thankfully for Gov. Scott, state and federal law are different so he doesn’t have to disclose his ownership interest in his wife’s investments. AND he won’t talk about it, he or his wife. The governor’s office has declined to discuss the matter or make the Gov. or First Lady available for an interview. Super duper.

“The Republican governor, a multimillionaire, puts his personal investments in a “qualified blind trust” that his office has described as being overseen by “an independent financial professional.” Florida public officers who use such a trust to “blind” themselves to the nature of their holdings get in exchange immunity from prohibited conflicts of interest under a law that Gov. Scott signed in 2013.
FloridaBulldog.org has reported, however, that the person overseeing Gov. Scott’s trust is yet another former employee at Richard L. Scott Investments and that the trust has been ineffective in keeping the governor’s assets secret.”

If he seems shady, it’s only because you know how to read. Check this out:

• When Scott took office in 2011, he transferred millions of dollars in assets to his wife, including a $62-million investment in the walk-in clinic chain Solantic. Mrs. Scott reportedly sold the stake in Solantic the same year (this caused an uproar about perceived conflicts of interest- Florida ethics laws “generally prohibit public officials from having an ownership interest in companies that do business with the state or are subject to state regulation”).
• In 2013, Scott had an undisclosed ownership stake in Spectra Energy when Florida’s Public Service Commission (five members appointed by Scott) unanimously approved construction of the $3-billion Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline (a joint venture of Spectra and NextEra Energy).
• Scott also has a $712,000 stake in Energy Transfer and its affiliates and subsidiaries; Energy Transfer owns a 50 percent interest in the Florida Gas Transmission pipeline, which delivers nearly 65 percent of the natural gas consumed in Florida.
• In 2012 Scott owned a $210,000 stake in the private equity firm that owned 21^st Century Oncology. That year the all-Republican governing board of taxpayer-supported Broward Health awarded the company an unprecedented 25-year, no-bid contract to supply radiation oncology services (the governor appoints Broward Health’s board members).

This guy is slimy.

http://www.healthnutnews.com/fla-gov-scotts-undisclosed-interest-zika-mosquito-control-company/

Six Reasons Rick Scott Should Run For President In 2016

Gov. Rick Scott. Hi. Hello. How are you? We see that you've been busy hosting a summit in Orlando of several potential GOP presidential candidates today. Neat!
This summit includes some All-Stars in the world of being ridiculously shady and dubious. Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry. Woof! That's like an Algonquin Round Table of dudes who hate the poor and and the gays. Nicely done.
But, come on. We know that this summit was all about you. This was your time to shine and show America that you're the actual GOP candidate they should be focusing on. And while there have been rumors that you might run for senate next year, we're here to tell you — may PLEAD with you — to please consider running for the highest office in all the land instead.

Run for president, Rick. It's pretty awesome, we imagine.
Here are six reasons why you should definitely consider throwing your bald cap into the run for 2016:
6. You'll Get The Chance at Blowing Up Obamacare Once And For All, Maybe, Unless It'll Hurt Your Chances to Be Relected 
You hate Obamacare, You hate it so much that you made up some bad math to avoid expanding it. You hate it so much, you sued the president over it. Although, let's admit, you've been hot and cold for Obamacare throughout your time as governor. In 2012, you said that expanding Medicare wouldn’t be good for anyone in Florida. Them a year later, you changed your mind, saying: “I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care.” Then you got reelected and now, you want to get rid of it again. This kind of yo-yoing for political points is exactly what being president is all about!
5. You Can Expand That Voter Suppression
You love suppressing people's votes. You love it almost as much as you hate Obamacare and poor people. More, even. Throughout your first term, you took on a mostly arbitrary voter purge after state officials sent local elections supervisors a list of 182,000 possible noncitizen voters, which actually turned out to be just 198 possible noncitizen voters. Meh 182 thousand - 192. Same diff, right? AND, of those 198, a whopping 38 of them had cast a vote illegally. THIS WAS AN OUTRAGE. But you didn't stop there, voter purge crusader that you are. In 2013, you had Secretary of State Ken Detzner send a certified letter to anyone flagged as a potential noncitizen. A flagged person would have to show proof of citizenship to remain on the voting rolls through a "due-process system that includes letters and legal notices," even though there had been minimal evidence of voter fraud in the state. But what's evidence and truth? That's never stopped you before! And, shit, ignoring evidence and truth is what some two-term presidencies have been built on!

4. You Can SCREW THE POOR!
In 2012, the U.S. Labor Department investigated you after complaints from unemployed Floridians who argued that your altruistic labyrinthine-like gauntlet to receive unemployment compensation was one giant pain in the ass. Applicants complained that they had to fill out a 45-question "skills review" and an online-only application, plus fill out forms through snail mail and then wait on hold for hours and hours before hearing an automated service that makes them press a bunch of buttons so it can tell them to keep holding, all in order to receive aid. This ranked Florida last in the U.S. at getting unemployed people the help they need. In the end, only 16 percent of unemployed Floridians are getting help via your application rules. Then there was the time you tried to get welfare recipients to undergo random drug tests because, poor people do drugs, OBVZ. And, of course, there's the Obamacare thing, which, once eliminated, will screw over a bunch of people who couldn't otherwise afford health care. The possibilities are ENDLESS.
3. You'll Have a Chance at Ruining the Environment on a NATIONAL Scale
You don't believe climate change is man-made, because you're not a scientist so, pfft. And since this kind of thinking has led you to recklessly ruin Florida's environment, while making friends with FPL, telling officials to not use the term "climate change," and pissing all over the Everglades, you can do the same on a national scale. Think about it. As president, you'll have the entire national parks service at your dispels. There's Yellowstone and Yosemite. Oh my gawww so many parks and natural resources to completely take a wrecking ball to! IT'S LIKE A DREAM! 

2. You Can Get Everyone Guns
Guns are awesome, right? And no other governor has passed more gun-friendly laws than you. Guns at schools! Guns at grocery stores! Guns in movie theaters! Guns in pants! Guns across America!
1. It's Totally OK to Be a Shady No Good Liar
As president, you basically lie for a living. And totally get away with it! That's so you. You, sire, are a master, legendary for invoking the Fifth Amendment as if he were told you would be paid a million dollars every time you did so. Your shady history with Medicare fraud and has been a master class of eluding questions that might otherwise nail you. Also, you've lied about your use of your government email for private use and have never been known as a guy who is straightforward and honest. This is the job for you!

Florida's Crooked Governor Rick Scott Discovers Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

Unless you're from Florida, you probably don't remember Jennifer Carroll,

Rick Scott's former Lt. Governor, a crook-- like him-- but one he held to a much higher standard than he holds himself. Just over a year ago, we covered her problems with ethics and common decency, problems that caused Scott to force her to resign. Kartik Krishnaiyer used to occasion to point out that the resignation was just the latest example of the ongoing culture of cronyism and corruption in the Sunshine State.      Florida Republicans have created a class of entitled politicians who lack intellectual curiosity or any governing wisdom. They are not conservatives as much as they are political whores for power and certain big business. They have lived for years on easy street being opposed by an impotent Florida Democratic Party that lacked organization or the courage in its own convictions to take the fight to the Republicans. The Democrats have benefited from these same tendencies in liberal southeast Florida, where it seems half the elected Democrats on the county level have been at one time or another linked to scandal.      ...Lt Gov. Carroll’s resignation is an indication that consequences are now being suffered by those in power for excessive and potentially illegal behavior. The progressive movement throughout American history has focused on issues of graft, greed, cronyism and corruption. Florida Progressives should do the same. Regardless of party, corrupt government cannot be progressive government.  

She works as a political commentator for WJXT Channel 4, a Jacksonville TV station. Her side of the story-- an autobiography called When You Get There-- hits the bookstores today, her birthday. I suppose Gov. Scott could be happy that the book isn't being released closer to November, since he's the villain of the story.      Carroll, a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, was the first black woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Florida and held the largely ceremonial job for more than two years. Scott's two top aides forced her to resign on March 12, 2013, after state law enforcement agents interrogated her about past public relations work for Allied Veterans of the World, a group linked to Internet cafes that were shut down after investigators uncovered widespread fraud.      Carroll initially did not disclose all of her income in 2009 and 2010 from Allied Veterans on state financial disclosure forms, but later reported the money on amended forms.      She was not charged with any wrongdoing and writes that she felt humiliated by how Scott's aides "ambushed" her with a one-sentence resignation letter they forced her to sign.      Carroll describes Scott as overly controlled by his own staff and lacking in a personal touch, saying he showed no concern after she fainted and struck her head on the floor at a hot Greek church.      "Clearly, something was missing there, some ability to make personal connections that he just didn't have," Carroll said.      Working with black political consultant Clarence McKee in the 2010 campaign, Carroll said she built a plan to reach out to black voters with local newspapers, radio and phone calls and that despite the campaign's objections, she attended a forum in Miami hosted by Bishop Victor Curry, a radio host and prominent voice in Miami's black community.      "The campaign didn't want it, but I did it anyway," she writes.      As a result, Carroll writes, Scott got 6 percent of the African-American vote, according to 2010 exit polls, and if she had not directed a "minority stealth" campaign, "Scott would have lost the election."

 
   …Carroll's book contains no new bombshells, and many of the incidents she describes were reported by the Florida media at the time. But few in Scott's orbit escape Carroll's wrath.      She claims that Scott's former chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, blocked access to the governor and would "undermine or get rid of people who didn't go along with him," and that his replacement, Adam Hollingsworth, was "even more ruthless" and lower-level staffers cowered in his presence.      Carroll, a stylish dresser, wrote that when she wore designer pants and boots for an event at the Governor's Mansion, Hollingsworth ordered her to change clothes, and told her to scrap a scheduled birthday party in 2012 because a hurricane was approaching the state and Scott had canceled public events.      "It was just so silly," Carroll writes.      Carroll writes that she spent months asking superiors for a travel budget before she got one, but after security costs in her first year approached $300,000, Scott's staff limited her travel and assigned her a lower-ranking state trooper than previous lieutenant governors had.      During Scott's inaugural celebration, she writes, "I was treated like an unwanted stepchild," and when she wanted to talk to the governor, she said, she was told to ask for an appointment with his scheduler.

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/08/floridas-crooked-governor-rick-scott.html

Unless you're from Florida, you probably don't remember Jennifer Carroll, Rick Scott's former Lt. Governor, a crook-- like him-- but one he held to a much higher standard than he holds himself. Just over a year ago, we covered her problems with ethics and common decency, problems that caused Scott to force her to resign. Kartik Krishnaiyer used to occasion to point out that the resignation was just the latest example of the ongoing culture of cronyism and corruption in the Sunshine State.

Florida Republicans have created a class of entitled politicians who lack intellectual curiosity or any governing wisdom. They are not conservatives as much as they are political whores for power and certain big business. They have lived for years on easy street being opposed by an impotent Florida Democratic Party that lacked organization or the courage in its own convictions to take the fight to the Republicans. The Democrats have benefited from these same tendencies in liberal southeast Florida, where it seems half the elected Democrats on the county level have been at one time or another linked to scandal.

...Lt Gov. Carroll’s resignation is an indication that consequences are now being suffered by those in power for excessive and potentially illegal behavior. The progressive movement throughout American history has focused on issues of graft, greed, cronyism and corruption. Florida Progressives should do the same. Regardless of party, corrupt government cannot be progressive government.

She works as a political commentator for WJXT Channel 4, a Jacksonville TV station. Her side of the story-- an autobiography called When You Get There-- hits the bookstores today, her birthday. I suppose Gov. Scott could be happy that the book isn't being released closer to November, since he's the villain of the story.

Carroll, a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, was the first black woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Florida and held the largely ceremonial job for more than two years. Scott's two top aides forced her to resign on March 12, 2013, after state law enforcement agents interrogated her about past public relations work for Allied Veterans of the World, a group linked to Internet cafes that were shut down after investigators uncovered widespread fraud.

Carroll initially did not disclose all of her income in 2009 and 2010 from Allied Veterans on state financial disclosure forms, but later reported the money on amended forms.

She was not charged with any wrongdoing and writes that she felt humiliated by how Scott's aides "ambushed" her with a one-sentence resignation letter they forced her to sign.

Carroll describes Scott as overly controlled by his own staff and lacking in a personal touch, saying he showed no concern after she fainted and struck her head on the floor at a hot Greek church.

"Clearly, something was missing there, some ability to make personal connections that he just didn't have," Carroll said.

Working with black political consultant Clarence McKee in the 2010 campaign, Carroll said she built a plan to reach out to black voters with local newspapers, radio and phone calls and that despite the campaign's objections, she attended a forum in Miami hosted by Bishop Victor Curry, a radio host and prominent voice in Miami's black community.

"The campaign didn't want it, but I did it anyway," she writes.

As a result, Carroll writes, Scott got 6 percent of the African-American vote, according to 2010 exit polls, and if she had not directed a "minority stealth" campaign, "Scott would have lost the election."

…Carroll's book contains no new bombshells, and many of the incidents she describes were reported by the Florida media at the time. But few in Scott's orbit escape Carroll's wrath.

She claims that Scott's former chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, blocked access to the governor and would "undermine or get rid of people who didn't go along with him," and that his replacement, Adam Hollingsworth, was "even more ruthless" and lower-level staffers cowered in his presence.

Carroll, a stylish dresser, wrote that when she wore designer pants and boots for an event at the Governor's Mansion, Hollingsworth ordered her to change clothes, and told her to scrap a scheduled birthday party in 2012 because a hurricane was approaching the state and Scott had canceled public events.

"It was just so silly," Carroll writes.

Carroll writes that she spent months asking superiors for a travel budget before she got one, but after security costs in her first year approached $300,000, Scott's staff limited her travel and assigned her a lower-ranking state trooper than previous lieutenant governors had.

During Scott's inaugural celebration, she writes, "I was treated like an unwanted stepchild," and when she wanted to talk to the governor, she said, she was told to ask for an appointment with his scheduler.

- See more at: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/08/floridas-crooked-governor-rick-scott.html#sthash.j6ZUsBZP.dpuf

Rick Scott Signs Terrible Law Expanding Florida DCF’s Power

One of the least desirable features of a representative democracy is that often, poorly thought out legislation is rammed through with little thought as a gross overreaction to immediate public outrage. Such is the case with the child welfare law signed into law by Florida Governor Rick Scott today. The gist of this story is that the Florida Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) has come under substantial public criticism for an investigative series of stories first published by the Miami Herald which revealed that 477 children have died child abuse related deaths in the last five years. The report criticized the agency for, among other things, failing to notice obvious signs of abuse in children under their care. Predictably, the response that has been ramroded through the Florida legislature is to, essentially, give lots more money and sweeping new authority to the agency directly responsible for the SNAFU that caused the public uproar in the first place:

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott signed a sweeping bill Monday aimed at overhauling the child-welfare system after hundreds of child abuse-related deaths in the past five years.

The new law calls for a fundamental shift in the way the Department of Children and Families investigates and responds to cases. It clearly states that protecting a child from abuse is paramount and more important than keeping a family together. In the past, DCF has placed a premium on putting fewer children in foster care and, instead, offering family services while the child remains at home.
* * *
The law will fund jobs for 270 additional child protective investigators to reduce caseloads. It also establishes a response team to quickly investigate child abuse deaths when the child had previous incidents with the system and adds a small amount of funding for at-risk families with young children. Child advocates said substance abuse treatment issues are at the heart of many child deaths.

The DCF, like the federal TSA, is wildly more popular as an abstract idea than it is as an agency, in particular among anyone who has the misfortune to run afoul of their workings in any sort of personal way. In the abstract, people like the idea that there should be an agency tasked with preventing child abuse and neglect. Where the rubber meets the road, however, nightmares almost invariably happen. Part of it has to do with the nature of the job – any time a stranger is tasked with confronting a parent about the way they are raising their child, ugly personal confrontations are bound to happen. Worse, in many cases, the social workers at DCF have to encounter legitimate, heart-rending abuse and witness children kept in conditions that would rend the heart of all but the most calloused of people. The combined pressures tend wash out the sort of thoughtful, compassionate, qualified social workers and instead self-selects for social workers who are either unqualified or incapable of finding employment elsewhere, or who dispositionally enjoy personal conflict, or who are at least mostly calloused to the suffering of children. In other words, the exact people who should be kept as far away from having the power to remove children from their families as possible.
As a result, state DCFs (or DCS as it may be known in your state) too often become neverending cavalcades of horror stories where hordes of legitimate abuse cases go inadequately or incompetently investigated, all while DCF caseworkers become unwitting foot soldiers in countless divorce vendettas. As just one example of the problems infesting state child welfare agencies, it has long been shown that minority families are disproportionately likely to be reported to DCF for investigation; but moreover, even among the reported population, are disproportionately likely to have their children removed to foster care - which is not the hallmark of an agency that is thoughtfully pursuing their work.

At a glance, many aspects of this legislation, such as improving training and quality of case workers, are admirable and cannot be gainsaid. But the bolded portion above, combined with a clear and sweeping monetary incentive to root out and find more abuse, will be the root of untold measures of evil. One of our most treasured principles as a Republic is the principle that, where possible and in the absence of a compelling contrary interest, children should be raised by their parents. Florida’s DCF now has a clear statutory provision to the contrary along with a huge budget and a mandate to find more abuse will, in the hands of an agency that has engendered well deserved distrust among almost everyone who has come in contact with them, lead to disaster.
Any conservatives who are lauding this decision should ask themselves this fundamental question – do you think this legislation, in the hands of the same DCF, will lead to less abuse? Or more horrors like those suffered by Justina Pelletier and her family?
Perhaps this is a question Rick Scott should have asked before signing this ill-advised legislation.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/23/rick-scott-signs-terrible-law-expanding-florida-dcfs-power/

Rick Scott Signs Terrible Law Expanding Florida DCF’s Power

Leaping from overreaction overreaction

 

One of the least desirable features of a representative democracy is that often, poorly thought out legislation is rammed through with little thought as a gross overreaction to immediate public outrage. Such is the case with the child welfare law signed into law by Florida Governor Rick Scott today. The gist of this story is that the Florida Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) has come under substantial public criticism for an investigative series of stories first published by the Miami Herald which revealed that 477 children have died child abuse related deaths in the last five years. The report criticized the agency for, among other things, failing to notice obvious signs of abuse in children under their care. Predictably, the response that has been ramroded through the Florida legislature is to, essentially, give lots more money and sweeping new authority to the agency directly responsible for the SNAFU that caused the public uproar in the first place:

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott signed a sweeping bill Monday aimed at overhauling the child-welfare system after hundreds of child abuse-related deaths in the past five years.

The new law calls for a fundamental shift in the way the Department of Children and Families investigates and responds to cases. It clearly states that protecting a child from abuse is paramount and more important than keeping a family together. In the past, DCF has placed a premium on putting fewer children in foster care and, instead, offering family services while the child remains at home.
* * *
The law will fund jobs for 270 additional child protective investigators to reduce caseloads. It also establishes a response team to quickly investigate child abuse deaths when the child had previous incidents with the system and adds a small amount of funding for at-risk families with young children. Child advocates said substance abuse treatment issues are at the heart of many child deaths.

 

The DCF, like the federal TSA, is wildly more popular as an abstract idea than it is as an agency, in particular among anyone who has the misfortune to run afoul of their workings in any sort of personal way. In the abstract, people like the idea that there should be an agency tasked with preventing child abuse and neglect. Where the rubber meets the road, however, nightmares almost invariably happen. Part of it has to do with the nature of the job – any time a stranger is tasked with confronting a parent about the way they are raising their child, ugly personal confrontations are bound to happen. Worse, in many cases, the social workers at DCF have to encounter legitimate, heart-rending abuse and witness children kept in conditions that would rend the heart of all but the most calloused of people. The combined pressures tend wash out the sort of thoughtful, compassionate, qualified social workers and instead self-selects for social workers who are either unqualified or incapable of finding employment elsewhere, or who dispositionally enjoy personal conflict, or who are at least mostly calloused to the suffering of children. In other words, the exact people who should be kept as far away from having the power to remove children from their families as possible.

As a result, state DCFs (or DCS as it may be known in your state) too often become neverending cavalcades of horror stories where hordes of legitimate abuse cases go inadequately or incompetently investigated, all while DCF caseworkers become unwitting foot soldiers in countless divorce vendettas. As just one example of the problems infesting state child welfare agencies, it has long been shown that minority families are disproportionately likely to be reported to DCF for investigation; but moreover, even among the reported population, are disproportionately likely to have their children removed to foster care - which is not the hallmark of an agency that is thoughtfully pursuing their work.
At a glance, many aspects of this legislation, such as improving training and quality of case workers, are admirable and cannot be gainsaid. But the bolded portion above, combined with a clear and sweeping monetary incentive to root out and find more abuse, will be the root of untold measures of evil. One of our most treasured principles as a Republic is the principle that, where possible and in the absence of a compelling contrary interest, children shoudl be raised by their parents. Florida’s DCF now has a clear statutory provision to the contrary along with a huge budget and a mandate to find more abuse will, in the hands of an agency that has engendered well deserved distrust among almost everyone who has come in contact with them, lead to disaster.
Any conservatives who are lauding this decision should ask themselves this fundamental question – do you think this legislation, in the hands of the same DCF, will lead to less abuse? Or more horrors like those suffered by Justina Pelletier and her family?
Perhaps this is a question Rick Scott should have asked before signing this ill-advised legislation.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/23/rick-scott-signs-terrible-law-expanding-florida-dcfs-power/

Disappearing DCF child-death reports: Security or secrecy?

Florida’s Department of Children and Families is under pressure over the tragic number of children dying while under state protection.
A team of reporters from The Miami Herald has been investigating how a decade-long shift toward “family preservation” to cut the number of abused and neglected children in state custody, coupled with a cut in services like drug and alcohol rehabilitation, has led to a corresponding rise in the number of dead children.
The Herald pressed for public records on each and every child death in Florida since 2008, and found 477 of them as of November, as part of its important “Innocents Lost” series. In March, the reporters went back to update their findings statewide. They discovered 145 more. They also found something odd out of the state’s West Palm Beach office, a regional office that had previously documented more child deaths than any other statewide. Between November and March 31, the Herald found the West Palm Beach office had filed zero child death incident reports.

Antwan Hope died under state protection.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t for a lack of child deaths. There had been 30 in the region, 15 from Palm Beach County. DCF’s Southeast Regional office — which covers Palm Beach, Broward, Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties — had suspended the filing of the incident reports. Meanwhile, the deaths continued. Drownings. Sleeping suffocations. Trauma.
A Riviera Beach newborn was found smothered to death during the night in December, apparently by her sleeping mother. Soon after, the Herald found, an administrator in West Palm Beach sent this email to her staff:
“Please do not file this in the system. No incident reports right now on death cases. … Will advise why later.”

DCF’s new interim Secretary Mike Carroll, promised to look into the missing reports, and his deputy secretary was dispatched to West Palm Beach earlier this month to investigate. Yet when the Herald asked for documents on that administrative inquiry, even handwritten notes, the agency said no public records had been created.
Carroll, to his credit, put his findings on the record in a June 6 official letter to the West Palm Beach office director, Dennis Miles. He applauded Miles for showing the “courage and leadership” to admit a mistake and take responsibility, and suspended him for two days. He said it was clear that no records had been destroyed, but found operating procedures were not followed. Incident reports and analysis are to be entered into the state’s system within one day.

Nubia Barhona, who died while under state protection.

Carroll added this finding: “I have determined that this was not in an effort to shield information from anyone,” but rather an attempt to address data security problems.
Miles goes further. He says he stopped the filing of the incident reports because they were being broadcast, unredacted, to a broad list of current and former DCF personnel — a serious security and privacy breach, since they contained some private medical and active criminal investigation records. Miles said he didn’t want to send them until the state solved its data security problem. That’s been fixed, he said.
Do you think this second DCF scandal evokes the secret Veterans Administration waiting lists that may have been created in Phoenix and elsewhere to hide how badly stretched the VA was in serving veterans in need of appointments? Or do you accept the assertiong that this was about data security, not secrecy?

http://opinionzone.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2014/06/18/disappearing-dcf-child-death-reports-security-or-secrecy/