Lake County and all of Florida are safer today thanks to a new state law that gives law enforcement a valuable tool to prevent gun violence by helping keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who demonstrate an obvious threat to themselves or others.
Florida joined a handful of states earlier this year when it passed the Risk Protection Order Act (RPO), or red flag law, spurred to much-needed action in response to the tragedy in Parkland, Florida. This important law, passed with bipartisan support in the state legislature, allows law enforcement to remove firearms and ammunition from violent or mentally ill individuals while affording citizens their due process.
The process for obtaining an RPO is straightforward and puts the decision to remove guns in the hands of a judge. First, law enforcement files a petition listing the statement, actions or facts which give rise to a reasonable fear of significant dangerous acts by respondent. The petition is heard by a Judge within 24 hours to determine if there is reasonable cause to believe the respondent poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to themselves or others in the near future by having in their custody any firearm or ammunition. If granted, the respondent is served with the temporary order, and they must immediately surrender their firearms, ammunition and concealed weapons license pending a final hearing. Continue reading
By TomL
For a long time I have been hearing about Political PACs. So I decided to look it up on the internet. First it is short for “Political Action Committee”. Their purpose is raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates. Most PACs represent business, labor or ideological interests. It’s the ideological interests where the trouble comes in. There is always a radical in the group. They want to get their person in office and will go to extreme measures to make that happen, even break the law.
The Marion County School race has done that again. One of the candidates has made charges of being threatened and bullied in hopes that she would drop out of the race. Some history…several races back, employees of the school system actually stole a candidate’s identity and tried to use it to their advantage. They were caught by the Marion County Sheriff’s office and were not even charged. They were not fired. Back then Sheriff Dean was in office and he was busy trying to damage control a scandal of his own when his person in charge got caught up in a problem. Continue reading
~$50 million toward fixes for federal Herbert Hoover Dike, $700,000 for Lee County~
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) have reached an agreement on a $50 million state investment to fund repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike. This agreement follows a $50 million investment made earlier this year, bringing the State of Florida’s total investment in this federal project to $100 million. After decades of federal inaction, Gov. Scott fought to secure this state funding and secured a commitment from the White House to provide the federal funds to fix the Herbert Hoover Dike. The funding will accelerate critical repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Once completed, this project will reduce the need for harmful water releases from the Army Corps of Engineers by allowing more water to be stored in Lake Okeechobee. Continue reading
CEP – Click to learn more
