Lauren Book claims to "support free speech," but we all know better than that

Lauren "The Irresponsible Whore" Book claims she supports free speech, but we all know better than that. This public school teacher should be grateful that he did not call Lauren Book an irresponsible whore, because even though Lauren Book IS an IRRESPONSIBLE WHORE, we know that calling Lauren Book an IRRESPONSIBLE WHORE will cause her to file a restraining order on you AND possibly get one of her paid supporters to file a bogus complaint against you to silence your activism.

Lauren told the Miami New Times back in 2015 said she wished critics "would speak directly to me so I can show them the amazing work we are doing on behalf of children." When a group of protesters tried doing that a month later, she called the police to try to have them arrested.

When an online critic protested Lauren Book, she filed a restraining order to silence him.

When anyone dares to question Lauren Book on her questionable fundraising efforts, she hides behind her abuse narrative, as noted in the Miami New Times in 2015:

"Political points?" Lauren asked incredulously. "I want to be clear about one thing. I was raped every day for six years, and they were the six most horrible and horrific years of my life. I felt guilty, ashamed, invisible, bad, dirty, hurt, and afraid every single day from the time that I was 11 until I was 16... Children in every community on the planet are also enduring the pain I suffered. I am trying to turn my personal pain into something positive and hopefully prevent this from happening to others."

But they have no problems calling people creeping crud, monsters, ticking time bombs, SOBs, and other vile names:

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=uDwrL_1526695160

Lauren Book needs to understand free speech is a two way street. She should stop acting surprised when a critics calls Lauren Book a CUNT or an IRRESPONSIBLE WHORE, because she IS both.

Stop me if you've heard this song before: Homeless Registrants in Miami must move again

Where have we heard this before? It is like a music tour, the cities change but the names remain the same. Julia Tuttle, Shorecreast, Allapattah, Hialeah, and now apparently Brownsville.

Honestly, when can we stop citing Ron Book as if he's helping with the solution?

If there is a hell, Ron Book will have his own circle of it after his passing.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/homeless-sex-offenders-booted-offered-shelter-by-frank-diazs-united-we-all-can-11191829

Homeless Sex Offenders Must Move Again
JESSICA LIPSCOMB | JUNE 11, 2019 | 9:00AM

Ever since the Julia Tuttle Causeway became an encampment for sex offenders more than a decade ago, officials have been trying to shoo the group away from the rest of civilization. Thanks to stringent requirements mandating that child predators live 2,500 feet from schools, parks, and daycare centers, the offenders have struggled to find legal housing, leaving many effectively homeless. For years, the roving offenders have been shuffled from one place to another, angering unlucky neighbors and nearby business owners.

After a 2017 New Times report about unsanitary living conditions at the group's tent city near Hialeah, county commissioners booted the group. It split into smaller factions across the county; some members even left the state.

Now the county is preparing to break up a growing colony of sex offenders living on NW 48th Street in Brownsville. An official notice posted in the area says the state has declared the encampment a sanitary nuisance, and the county considers those living there to be in violation of Miami-Dade code. The county "will be forced to take appropriate enforcement action including, but not limited to, civil penalties and/or arrest" of those who do not vacate by June 20, the sign warns.

"They put up a notice saying, 'Kick rocks — you've got to get out of here.' The question is, to where?" says Frank Diaz, a local pastor who ministers to offenders at the camp.

Diaz says he and his nonprofit group, United We All Can, already care for homeless people in faith-based shelters across Miami-Dade. He'd like to further his outreach by dedicating an entire "restoration home" to displaced sex offenders.

"What we're asking is the county give us a place in an industrial area where it's away from parks, schools, and communities,” Diaz says. “We can build that place up and house them there. We'll minister to them, but the county's gotta help us find the property."

Ron Book, the ultrapowerful lobbyist who chairs the Homeless Trust, sees merit in the idea. It could help rehabilitate some sex offenders and make it easier for law enforcement and probation officers to keep track of the population.

"If somebody wants to build something away from the general population, we would certainly encourage that," Book says.

But he says he can't seriously entertain a proposal until it's fully fleshed out. And he's uncertain about using the Trust budget for such a project.

"Taking significant funds to fund the building or the renovation — you know, that remains to be seen as to my willingness to do that," Book says.

Without any clear direction on legal homes, the offenders now rely on word-of-mouth suggestions for places that fit the county's narrow criteria. Diaz says the law actually makes residents less safe in some ways because the sex offenders can't find steady housing or work.

"The only thing they're doing is getting angry," he says, "and what we want to do is restore them so they become productive and they don't recommit these types of offenses."

In the meantime, the group on NW 48th Street will be forced to find a new home, which, Diaz says, "is not a solution that works. They're just sweeping bodies under the rug and saying this is not a problem."

Surprise! Lauren Book "sprinkles" herself with $500,000 more Floridiot taxpayer bucks

"Woo hoo! More money for ME!"

According to the Florida Bulldog, 37 of 45 bills introduced by Lauren Book didn't even make it out of committee.

In case you want to keep score, these are the only bills she helped pass:

1. The sex doll ban
2. An administrative bill changing agency names for the state's elderly care department
3. "Andrew's Law" yet another named law, this time targeting school hazing
4. Creating a new bureaucracy, the "Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission"
5. A bill revising rules for Stroke Centers

The rest died in committee or failed to pass later.

Remember the Progressive Ad "Only Winners Get Sprinkles"? I don't think Senator Bimbo earned her sprinkles this year.

https://www.floridabulldog.org/2019/05/legislative-sprinkle-extra-half-million-dollars-to-state-senators-nonprofit/

Legislative ‘sprinkle’ adds extra half-million dollars to state senator’s nonprofit, quietly doubling state payout to Lauren’s Kids

MAY 22, 2019
AUTHOR: FRANCISCO ALVARADO

In the waning days of the most recent Florida legislative session, it appeared the nonprofit agency founded and run by Plantation State Sen. Lauren Book would walk away with only half-a-million dollars in taxpayer funding after consecutive years of receiving seven-figure sums.

Then came the April 30th meeting of the budget conference chairs. That’s when Lauren’s Kids got sprinkled.

The so-called “sprinkle list” is used to describe how legislators shower favored organizations with additional dollars near the end of session.

Toward the end of the hearing, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Rob Bradley, R- Green Cove Springs, announced that the children’s cancer awareness foundation Live Like Bella and Book’s organization, Lauren’s Kids, had been erroneously left off the list. He said each would receive an additional $500,000.

With a stroke of a pen, Bradley made sure his colleague’s nonprofit walked away with $1 million for its educational outreach program aimed at preventing sexual and physical abuse against children, as well as encouraging the reporting of child-abuse cases. Book later voted to approve the budget bill containing the allocation for Lauren’s Kids.

But according to ethics watchdogs, the large allocation of public funds to a senator’s nonprofit  raises concerns about whether Book, a Democrat, properly disclosed her ties to Lauren’s Kids. Likewise, they question the legislative practice of doling out public dollars to private groups after legislative committees have already voted on how much money the groups should receive.

Subversive sprinkle

Peter Cruise, executive director of Florida Atlantic University’s LeRoy Collins Public Ethics Academy, said the sprinkle list subverts the committee process. “It becomes more concerning if it involves a legislator and the organization has her name on it, even if it’s for helping abused kids,” said Cruise, who is also a Palm Beach County ethics commissioner. “Things like this should not happen, no matter how worthy the cause is.”

Ben Wilcox, research director for the watchdog organization Integrity Florida, said legislators only have to disclose a possible conflict of interest if the appropriation directly benefits them. “She can argue that it is not a direct benefit to her because the allocation is to the nonprofit,” Wilcox explained. “But it is a really gray area. If I were her, I would err on the side of full disclosure.”

Furthermore, Book should have sought an opinion from the Senate’s general counsel before voting on the state budget, Wilcox said. “If you don’t take some steps to fully disclose what could be a potential conflict, it doesn’t look good to the public,” he said.

Since its inception in 2007, Lauren’s Kids has sought and received grant funding from the state, collecting more than $13 million in the last five years alone. The senator, a rising Broward Democrat whose father is powerhouse lobbyist Ron Book, receives a $144,250 salary as Lauren’s Kids CEO, according to the nonprofit’s 2016 tax return, the most recent available. The same document shows that government grants represented 68 percent of Lauren’s Kids 2016 $4.1 million revenue. Book’s Senate salary is $29,697.

In a 2017 interview before the start of her first year in office, Book told Florida Bulldog that she consulted the Senate’s general counsel about voting on issues relating to Lauren’s Kids. She said she was advised “that I do not abstain on these matters unless the funding directly inures to my benefit, which it will not.” Book insisted that her CEO salary was restructured so that is not paid with state funds and that she derives no personal benefit from public tax dollars.

During her first term, Book has quickly risen up the ranks in the Republican-controlled Legislature. She is chairwoman of the Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee and is a member of the Appropriations Committee and two appropriations subcommittees that oversee education, health and human services. However, she has been mostly ineffective in passing her own legislative agenda.

According to her Senate website, 37 of 45 bills Book sponsored died at the committee level, including measures to establish trust and compensation funds for victims’ families of the Feb. 14, 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High mass shooting.

A ‘scrivener’s error’

As a member of the Appropriations Committee and subcommittees, Sen. Book was at the April 30th budget conference. When Bradley said a ‘scrivener’s error’ had mistakenly left off funding for Live Like Bella and Lauren’s Kids, Book was a few feet away from the Senate appropriations chairman, according to video footage of the meeting.

“As an appointed member of the overall Joint Budget Conference Committee and a member of both the Education and the Health and Human Services Budget Conference Sub-Committees it was my duty to be there,” Book said in an emailed statement. The senator said the $500,000 sprinkle for Lauren’s Kids was requested by Democratic Sen. Bill Montford of Leon County, who also is the CEO of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. Bradley and Montford did not respond to phone messages and emails requesting comment.

Book said she became aware of the scrivener’s error during the budget conference, but that she did not discuss Lauren’s Kids funding with any of the legislators or Senate staff in attendance.

Lauren’s Kids spokeswoman Claire VanSusteren told Florida Bulldog that Book has not been involved with any legislative funding requests related to the nonprofit.

“She does not lobby her colleagues on the budget, and does not participate in foundation-related legislative updates as she is no longer a member of the Lauren’s Kids board of directors,” VanSusteren said. “The only exception has been to vote on a final state budget as is required of her as a state senator.”

Cruise, the ethics commissioner, said having a colleague like Montford sponsor funding for Lauren’s Kids puts some distance between the senator and her nonprofit, but that the sprinkle list subverts the vetting process undertaken by the legislative committees.

“The appropriations process is extremely political,” Cruise said. “It is hard to get on an agenda and organizations can get knocked out at the last minute. To have something come out of left field is not the way the process is supposed to work.”

Controversial agencies GEO Group and Correct Care Solutions are among the sponsors of Lauren's Kids

I remember when GEO Group denied giving their blood money to Senator Lauren Book in an article discussing their plans to sue Dream Defenders, a pro-immigration group that protested GEO Group's treatment of immigrant detainees.

The Florida Democratic Party also banned candidates from accepting GEO Group funds, but Lauren Book STILL received money from them.

Well, guess who is still taking GEO Group blood money? You guessed it-- Lauren Book. Below is a screenshot from her organization dated today.

Am I the only one finding it interesting that Lauren Book has accepted over $100k from a private prison group responsible for some of the worst cases of physical and sexual abuse in a juvenile detention in American history?

While we're on this subject, what about the fact Correct Care Solutions (which merged with Correctional Medical Group Companies to form a new company, Wellpath) also sponsors Lauren's Kids? They're the subject of a major lawsuit where neglect and abuse have led to miscarriages, stillbirths, and dangerous prison births. Remember the recent story of the mentally ill woman in Broward County who gave birth in her own jail cell after no one would come to her aid? That was Correct Care Solutions.

Why is it the media won't grill self-professed victim advocate Senator Lauren Book on the fact she continues to accept blood money from groups that have abused women and children? Am I the only one that finds it odd that her acceptance of this money is hypocritical of her as well as unethical? As the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase once said, "Everybody's Got a Price." We all know the Books have a price, and it is paid with GEO Group blood money.

Despite knowing her Backpage law backfired, Senator Lauren Book pushed ahead with the Prostitution Registry

Senator Bimbo obviously doesn't understand how the Internet works; she thinks if this registry backfires, then it can just be taken offline and all will be fine.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7xgx7a/florida-bill-soliciting-for-prostitution-public-database

SEX WORK
|
By Samantha Cole
|
May 10 2019, 9:30am
A Government Database for People Who Pay for Sex Is a Terrible, Dangerous Idea

A set of bills pass this month in Florida that, if they become law, will build a “Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database."


A set of bills passed the Florida House and Senate earlier this month that would build a database of people convicted for soliciting sex, and which sex workers and advocates say will ruin lives and put them at more risk.

Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 851, when signed into law, will set up a database that includes anyone convicted of “soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another to commit prostitution, lewdness, or assignation,” according to the Senate's bill, which was drafted by Democratic senator Lauren Book. The “Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database” would filter everyone convicted of soliciting sex into one database. According to a spokesperson for Book, it would include already-public information from clerk of court including full legal names, date of birth, a mugshot, and the offense committed.

The database is aimed at clients, but advocates say it will harm sex workers and trafficking survivors by making it more difficult to screen for dangerous clients and increasing the probability of police stings and violence.

“Upon the person’s conviction, the clerk of the court shall forward the criminal history record of the convicted person to the Department of Law Enforcement for inclusion in the database,” the bill states.

“It becomes impossible to tell the difference between somebody who is scared and somebody who is scary.”

Publicly shaming clients for soliciting sex, and attempting to reduce demand for sex work, will only make it harder for workers to screen for bad dates, experts told me. Screening dates usually involves giving a provider personal information—something clients might be less willing to do if they’re worried about ending up on a database.

“When you make clients afraid, it becomes harder to screen out predators,” Kaytlin Bailey, communications director for advocacy group Decriminalize Sex Work told me in a phone call. “It becomes impossible to tell the difference between somebody who is scared and somebody who is scary.”

Now that the bills have passed, they’re headed for Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s desk to be signed into law. I’ve reached out to co-sponsor Florida Republican Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, and DeSantis, and will update if I hear back.

Like the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which passed last year and immediately started hurting sex workers, this bill is written under the guise of combating human trafficking.

“When we curb the demand for the illegal sale and purchase of sex, we will also curb the profitability of human trafficking,” Book said in a press release. In a statement sent to me via email, Book said that the goal of the database is “to curb the demand for paid sex, and therefore impact the supply.” She said that the database will also be studied by Florida’s state research arm, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, for three years, to determine its effectiveness in curbing human trafficking.

“We don’t want to create the type of issue we saw with the well-intentioned elimination of Backpage, which only forced trafficking deeper into the shadows,” Book said. “So if it doesn’t work, the database will cease to exist.”

But activists, harm reductionists, and years of research into policies that aim to end demand for sex work say otherwise. Studies show that sex offender registries can increase recidivism and cause more harm than good.

Even though the bill is allegedly aimed at stopping sex trafficking, its opponents—several of them survivors of trafficking or abuse themselves—say that this will be catastrophic for people working in the consensual sex trade, especially those already engaging in survival sex: to procure a place to sleep, food, or safety. Several studies have shown that criminalizing sex work increases violence and health risks for workers.

Read more: A New Zealand Woman Was Charged for Doxing a Sex Worker Online

“The causal relationship couldn’t be clearer: When you increase criminalization, you increase violence against sex workers,” Bailey said. “This is true whether you’re talking about criminalizing sex workers themselves or criminalizing clients. Everywhere we’ve see end-demand policies enacted, such as Sweden and the Netherlands, you see violence increase against sex workers. Because it diminishes our negotiating power.”

Under sex work criminalization laws, sex workers working or living together for safety can be charged with solicitation. Because the database will include anyone convicted of soliciting sex, sex workers will likely end up on this list alongside clients—effectively revealing their personal information to predators via government public records, leaving them even more vulnerable than before.

"If the representatives aren’t listening to the people the laws are going to affect, what are they doing in that position"

According to all of the sex workers and activists I spoke to about this bill, trying to lower demand by publicly shaming clients is not going to stop sex work, but it will make it more dangerous. Some of the repercussions for lowered demand within an already criminalized industry include being more likely to work longer, more dangerous hours; being more likely to be pressured into acts they don’t want (like being bullied into not using a condom); taking on clients they are uneasy about, or unable to properly screen; and being pushed back into homelessness, substance abuse, or abusive relationships with partners or managers out of need.

Alex Andrews, lead organizer at advocacy organization Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Behind Bars, told me in a phone call that to see this bill pushed through to the detriment of already-marginalized communities is deeply disheartening.

“It’s frustrating because these things are impacting our community big time,” she said. “They’re very harm-causing, they displace a lot of workers, they mess up lives.... to add a registry to it makes it even worse.”

Some of the legislators working on this bill have made it clear that they aren’t interested in hearing feedback from sex workers. In a Florida subcommittee hearing in March on bills that would require hotel staff to be trained to profile women who might be trafficked, database bill co-sponsor Fitzenhagen told the committee, “In case it was lost on you, a consensual sex worker, AKA a prostitute, is committing a crime. It is not my intent to work with them moving forward."

Kristen Cain, a sex worker and activist at SWOP Tampa Bay who testified at the March hearing, said that she and other sex workers have presented their concerns to legislators, but they don’t seem to be listening.

Read more: Sex Workers Don't Trust Kamala Harris

“I already have friends that are attacked and assaulted during sessions—they can’t go to the police and say, ‘I was assaulted and need some help,’ because all of their info is entered into public record,” she told me in a phone call. “This makes it even harder to say, 'hey I was assaulted,' because not only is it public record, but it goes on a database specifically for this.”

Cain told me she expects the bills to be signed into law by DeSantis, whose voting record includes making it more difficult for ex-felons to vote, and arming school teachers instead of implementing sensible gun law reform.

“To be honest with you, if the representatives aren’t listening to the people the laws are going to affect, what are they doing in that position,” Cain said.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Ron Book thinks sex offender laws should continue to torture elderly, invalid individuals on the registry

The mentality of Ron Book doesn't surprise me, given that Book allowed sick,elderly registrants rot in homeless camps throughout Miami-Dade County.

By the way, a drunk driver is a drunk diver, doesn't matter if he's 18 or 98. Lock his ass up already!

https://www.wftv.com/news/florida/housing-elderly-sex-offenders/945769719

Housing elderly sex offenders

By: MERYL KORNFIELD of Fresh Take Florida news service, Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida

Updated: May 2, 2019 - 3:39 PM
Facebook
Housing elderly sex offenders

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Since 82-year-old Leonard Bailey hit his head in a fall eight months ago, he can't remember to take his medicine.

His ex-wife, Marianne Devita, calls him 11 times a day to remind him about his appointments.

At that stage of dementia, many families would consider admitting him to a nursing home, but Devita said she has a list of assisted living homes that have rejected Bailey. The pages lined up are as tall as Devita's grandson - whom Bailey has never seen.

"Nobody wants him," she said. "Nobody wants a sex offender."

Bailey is among a growing number of elderly sex offenders: People on Florida's list of 73,000 registered offenders who are 65 and older jumped 2 percentage points between 2015 and 2016, according to the state's legislative auditors, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Florida's registry has about 10,200 elderly offenders.

The problem is sparking a national crisis of social and justice policy: How and where do we allow the most-reviled class of citizens to survive their silver years - especially those with serious age-related medical problems - after they have served their prison terms, while striving to protect children who may be living nearby?

For offenders like Bailey who can't live without assistance, nursing or retirement homes are not a guarantee. Even if the retirement home isn't within 1,000 feet of schools and parks, as required the state's sex offender residency restrictions, managers of nursing homes often reject elderly felons.

The state policy for long-term care homes is this: Management can choose to accept or reject applicants. Some other states, and Hillsborough County, have residency restrictions within 1,000 feet of places where seniors live, including nursing homes. States, counties and cities have different rules limiting where offenders can live.

In Iowa, the 2017 legislature considered a bill that would have created a committee that studied the feasibility of building a long-term care facility for offenders.

Privately owned assisted living homes have reasons for rejecting offenders. They may be financially responsible for lawsuits if a resident is assaulted by another resident with a criminal history. A Pennsylvania nursing home agreed to pay $6.75 million in damages to the estate of a resident who was assaulted there. The home knew the resident who assaulted her was a registered offender.

Oak Hammock, a University of Florida-managed retirement community in Gainesville, said it prioritizes resident safety and screens for sex-related criminal histories. It does not accept predators.

Assisted-living homes may also face reputational damage and lose other prospective clients if their commercial addresses show up on sex-offender registries.

Living at home isn't always an option for offenders either. When offenders' families are unable to move from areas near school or parks, offenders seek housing elsewhere.

Bailey was arrested for touching a minor in Florida while he was on vacation with Devita from their home in Long Island, New York.

Devita is still in New York, driving her 14-year-old grandson to school in the mornings, helping her daughter-in-law with chores. Bailey remains near where he was in prison. He is driven to court-mandated therapy and the sheriff's office.

When Bailey put a girl's hand in his pocket and asked her if she felt his "little leg," he was 74. Now Devita said Bailey, who uses a cane, can't live on his own anymore. After he hit his head in the bathroom, it took her calling him 37 times before he was able to reach for the phone.

"Help me" is all he said.

Since then, he often forgets his "black box" that pairs with the bracelet around his ankle to monitor his location. He's already been sent to prison for misplacing the device before and his parole officer has warned him the next time it happens he will be sent back.

Bailey can't help but forget.

"I'm getting too old to fight about this," he said. "I don't care."

For some victim advocates, any risk that a sex offender might lapse back into criminal behavior is too high. Ron Book, a former legislator, lobbied for Florida's restrictions after his daughter, who is now a state senator, was assaulted by her nanny in the late '90s and early 2000s.

He said he has met elderly offenders and is aware of cases when they committed new crimes. He does not think the state should change laws to account for the aging offender population.

"Sex crimes are sex crimes," he said. "Doesn't matter if they're 18 or 98."

Researchers have found that the chance of recidivism decreases by half every five years an offender is out of prison, said Jill Levenson, professor of social work at Barry University and an expert in sex offender treatment and policy.

She predicts that offenders will live together and provide care to each other.

This is already happening, according to sheriff's offices responses in the state's accountability office survey.

Residency restrictions are the most common hurdle for offenders searching for housing, with unwilling property managers a close second reason. Both contribute to the growth of enclave communities where offenders live together, usually in mobile home parks.

There are no known, comprehensive lists of communities or neighborhoods that accept sex offenders. Some in Florida include a St. Petersburg trailer park that was the subject of a 2016 documentary called "Pervert Park."

Lori Nassofer, who helps sex offenders 55 and older find housing in Central Florida, owns three mobile home parks near Orlando. "NO CHILDREN" signs are posted at the driveway.

The business of finding offenders housing is booming. There are no vacancies in Nassofer's parks.

Ron Johnson manages Overland Village for Nassofer, a mobile home park in Apopka. He said he receives 30 to 40 calls a week. He is kept busy coordinating housing for sex offenders recently released from prison.

Sex offenders in Florida must already have an address they will live at before they can leave prison.

"It's taking calls all the time," Johnson said. "Taking phone calls, dealing with probation, prisons, release coordinators, hospitals - you name it."

Finding housing is considered one of the biggest barriers for sex offenders recently released from prison. Federal rental assistance in public housing is not available to sex offenders.

Johnson said sex offenders risk being gouged for rent when they have no other options. At Nassofer's parks, most offenders already own their trailers or rent from each other. She charges $350 for land rent and covers utilities.

Many of the offenders have Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid. Some get financial help from family or friends. Few have jobs.

Bailey receives $1,200 a month for Social Security and pays his roommate, Paul Casey, $500 for a room in his trailer.

Most of the elderly offenders in the park have relatively younger roommates who take care of them. Johnson takes care of elderly in his park, including a man in a wheelchair.

"I shouldn't have him because I can't care for him," he said. "But what is he going to do?"

When Bailey's doctor told him he could no longer drive because of the dementia, Casey started using Bailey's Lincoln to take him grocery shopping.

Gail Colleta, an advocate for sex offenders, has asked lawmakers to consider lifting the state's residency restrictions if an offender is a certain age or has ailments.

"This is a humanity issue," said Colleta, president of Florida Action Committee. "We're more concerned about stray animals than we are about people with issues, that need to have medication, that need to have oxygen, that are just human beings."

Bailey has given up trying to take control. Sitting in a fold-out chair at the picnic area of his mobile home park, he pointed at the ground. He said he'd rather be under it.

"I'm just so tired of hanging around."

___

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

A Reminder that Ron Book was once shouted at by REAL homeless Activists, and that time he was suspended from practicing law

Ron Book is still an "advocate" for the homeless, yet those who actually try to help the homeless at the street level know Ron Book is truly no friend to the homeless.

This story appears to be fro 2014 judging by the year the comments were made.

https://www.browardbeat.com/lobbyist-homeless-advocates-in-shouting-match/

Lobbyist, Homeless Advocates In Shouting Match

BY BUDDY NEVINS

Ron Book just wants some respect.

After all, Book is the best known, most durable and best paid lobbyist in Florida. He reported $5.6 million in income from 81 clients in Tallahassee alone last year.  That figure doesn’t included his work in Miami-Dade and Broward.

For the past two decades, Book has spent thousands of hours working to end homelessness.

So when he was booed and yelled at during a town hall meeting on the homeless earlier this week in Fort Lauderdale, Book took it personally.

He shouted back.

“I have a history on this subject. I’m not going to be intimidated,” Book explained later to Browardbeat.com

Book was attempting to speak at a meeting called by Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Dean Trantalis. The meeting’s goal was to find common ground that would cool the city’s homeless controversy.

There are two sides to this homeless crisis:

* Fort Lauderdale City Commissioners in October limited the feeding of homeless in public. They contend the homeless are threatening the lifestyle of residents.

* Homeless activists ignored the ban.  Several have been arrested, resulting in negative worldwide publicity for Fort Lauderdale

Trantalis’ meeting was packed with activists who want to continue feeding the homeless in parks and at the beach.

Book was not popular because he agreed with commissioners.

“The homeless have rights, but so do the people of Broward County,” Book later told Browardbeat.com. “You have to balance both in establishing programs for the homeless.”

Street feeding does not contribute “to ending homelessness. It continues it,” he contends. The homeless should be fed in a controlled setting so bathrooms and social services can be offered.

“The object is to get the homeless indoors where they can get cleaned up and see people who can get them off the streets – mental health professionals, social workers,” Book said.

The activists didn’t want to hear that from Book.

Trantalis’ meeting degenerated into a shouting match between the scrappy lobbyist and activists.

It got nasty.  Really nasty.  Book was screamed at.  He screamed back.

The atmosphere was so bad that Book had to be escorted to his car by a police officer. Said Book, “It is the first time in 21 years dealing with this that I felt uncomfortable.”

Ironically, Book was attacked in 2008 by a homeless man as he left a Broward County Commission meeting in downtown Fort Lauderdale.  The story is here.  It never dampened his work for the homeless.

He was one of the original promoters of Broward County’s 230-bed homeless shelter on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, which opened in 1999.  He rounded up many of the first big contributors to the project.

Before that, Book pushed a food and beverage tax though the 1992 Legislature that raises $12 million annually for homeless services in Miami-Dade.

Miami-Dade Commissioners apparently like his volunteer work for the homeless,  Commissioners have repeatedly waved the residency requirement for Book, who lives in Plantation, to allow him to chair the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust Leadership. The trust administers the tax and raises millions more in federal and state funding.

Book said that the current debate is an “opportunity. Broward County should use this time when all this attention is focused on the homeless to formulate a plan for the future.”

He called for a summit between cities like Fort Lauderdale and Broward to discuss a realistic strategy that would help get the homeless off the street.

Book’s proposal is perhaps the most constructive suggestion to surface during this homeless hullabaloo.

It is too bad nobody wanted to listen.

___________________________

In the comment section, a poster added an article from the 1997 Miami Herald. It is a bit of overlooked history from Rom Book.

HIGH COURT SUSPENDS LOBBYIST’S LAW LICENSE
Miami Herald, The (FL) – Friday, July 11, 1997

Author: TYLER BRIDGES Herald Capital Bureau

Lawyer-lobbyist Ron Book will lose his right to practice law for 75 days under a ruling handed down Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court.

The punishment was recommended by the Florida Bar Association, which disciplines lawyers. The Supreme Court must approve its recommendations for disciplinary action.

Book is being punished for violating state election law by funneling campaign contributions through his secretaries in order to exceed the maximum contribution limits.

Having to suspend Book’s law license won’t hurt him much in the pocketbook because he devotes only 10 percent of his work to legal matters. The rest of the time he lobbies for such clients as H. Wayne Huizenga, Metro-Dade County and the Tobacco Institute.

But the punishment is an embarrassment to Book, who is one of the state’s most influential lobbyists.

“I’m anxious to close this chapter in my life and put it behind me for good,” Book said Thursday.
Caption: photo: Ron Book (a)

Edition: State
Section: Local
Page: 2B
Dateline: TALLAHASSEE
Record Number: 9707120298
Copyright (c) 1997 The Miami Herald

_______________________________

This story was also alluded to in the link below, and thus confirms this was a real repost from a Miami Herald article. I'd like it if someone would like to find full articles from the list below and send them to me, I'd love to have them all.

http://floridakeysjournal.com/journal/2009/030109.htm

February 19, 2009 - Monroe County - Kay Thacker: Ron Book History Part 2 "Dream Team Other Occasional ContributorsLobbyist" With permission to share. Ed. -- Ouch!

The History Of Lobbyist Ron Book, Part 2 One member of "Dream Team Lobbyist"

1786. *Miami Herald* - July 11, 1997 - 2B Local

*HIGH COURT SUSPENDS LOBBYIST'S LAW LICENSE*  Lawyer-lobbyist Ron Book will lose his right to practice law for 75 days under a ruling handed down Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court. The punishment was recommended by the Florida Bar Association, which disciplines lawyers.

The Supreme Court must approve its recommendations for disciplinary action. Book is being punished for violating state election law by funneling campaign contributions through his secretaries in order to exceed the maximum contribution limits. Having to suspend...

1765. *Miami Herald* - June 18, 2006 - 1B Metro & State

*PAYING LOBBYISTS PAID OFF WELL*  With a 30-day grace period about to run out, professional lobbyists who had initially refused to disclose how much money they get paid to shepherd legislation through the halls of the state Capitol have decided to comply with a tough new law. Among the late filers revealing how much they got paid: Aventura lobbyist Ron Book, whose firm earned more than $1 million in the first three months of 2006 to lobby the Legislature. Book's firm, according to the disclosures, is among the...

1717. *Miami Herald* - April 14, 2001 - 1B Local

*CLIENTS UPSET WITH LOBBYIST*  Several of lobbyist Ron Book's taxpayer-supported clients say they plan to change the way they do business with him, following a Herald report this week. Many of Book's public clients paid him thousands of dollars for expenses - in addition to his retainer - without asking for any documentation of how he spent the money. ``We're not paying any more expenses, effective immediately,'' said Frank Sacco, CEO of the South Broward...

1696. *Miami Herald* - November 2, 1998 - 2B Local

*INFLUENTIAL LOBBYIST WORKS ON BOTH SIDES*  Powerful South Florida lobbyist Ron Book works for the South Florida Regional Planning Council, ensuring that it and the state's other Regional Planning Councils receive money from the Legislature each year. Book also represents development projects that come up for council review. Is that a conflict of interest? The attorney for the Regional Planning Council has said no.

But at least a few council members say the situation makes them uncomfortable. ``I have some...

1707. *Miami Herald* - June 5, 2007 - B3

*NORTH MIAMI BILLBOARDS: 3 rivals used 1 lobbyist,  The same influential lobbyist worked for all three sides in a high-stakes fight over billboards in North Miami.*  In the fight over building billboards in North Miami -- a fight complete with legal arm-twisting and lots and lots of money -- the three sides had one thing in common: The same lobbyist was working for all of them. Ron Book, one of Florida's most powerful lobbyists, said he did nothing improper and even improved the outcome for all concerned. But even some of the story's central players had no idea Book was working all three sides. Book advised and later...

1808. *Miami Herald* - October 15, 1995 - 1B LOCAL

*FDLE: CONTINUE PROBE OF LOBBYIST*  Everyone agreed -- the prosecutor, his boss and the defense team: Lobbyist Ron Book would plead guilty to four misdemeanors for funneling illegal campaign contributions to the politically powerful. Everyone agreed -- except the agents who spent months investigating Book for using office workers' checkbooks to conceal his election law violations. Now, in a rare public split in the ranks of law enforcement, Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents have persuaded their boss to...

1802. *Miami Herald* - March 23, 2000 - 3B Local

*LOBBYIST CROSSES COUNTIES ON TAX*  Where was lobbyist Ron Book, who is paid more than $100,000 a year by Miami-Dade and Broward taxpayers, just a few hours after both county commissions unanimously voted to oppose a bill that could tax cruise-ship passengers to pay for a new Florida Marlins ballpark? He was promoting the bill with state lawmakers in Tallahassee, handing out dozens of Marlins caps and hustling two former All-Stars between Capitol offices to pose for pictures and autograph baseballs. Book says conflicts of...

1802. *Miami Herald* - June 16, 1999 - 9B Broward

*LOBBYIST APOLOGIZES FOR HIS ROLE IN TRYING TO PASS BAIL-BOND BILL*  Broward County lobbyist Ron Book apologized Tuesday for his role in pushing a bill that could have cost the county millions, County commissioners accepted his apology and told him everyone makes mistakes

- just don't do it again. ``I appreciate his apology,'' Commissioner Chairwoman Ilene Lieberman said, echoing the sentiments of many of her colleagues. ``Hopefully, you don't make the same mistake again.'' Book was...

1795. *Miami Herald* - December 16, 1988 - 34A EDITORIAL

*FIT THE PUNISHMENT \*  THE DADE County School Board commendably has said "Thanks, but no thanks" to a circuit court's plea-bargain deal requiring Miami lawyer Ron Book to teach 200 hours of high-school civics. Nothing personal, said the board. Nobody doubted that Book, once an aide to then-Gov. Bob Graham and now an influential lobbyist, knows a lot about how government works -- that is, how it really works, not the civics-textbook version. It's just that the board...

1787. *Miami Herald* - February 13, 1986 - 1A FRONT

*LAWYER TIED TO BRIBE PROBE OPA-LOCKA OFFICIAL SAYS $4,000 WAS OFFERED*  Miami attorney Ronald L. Book, a close adviser and Dade County fund raiser for Gov. Bob Graham, is under investigation in a bribery probe in Opa-locka, The Herald has learned. Opa-locka Vice Mayor Brian Hooten told The Herald he accepted a $4,000 cash payment on Dec. 3 from a man who he understood was working for Book. At the time, Hooten was wearing an electronic listening device and participating in an undercover police investigation. Book, a partner in the firm of Sparber, Shevin, Shapo,...

1735. *Miami Herald* - October 4, 1995 - 2B LOCAL

*DELAYS ALLOW HUIZENGA FIRMS TO SKIRT SCRUTINY*  Days after serving subpoenas, Dade prosecutors got their hands on the lobbying contracts of most everyone that employs Ron Book. But they never got a single document from Book's best- known client: Wayne Huizenga. None of Huizenga's companies -- among them, the Dolphins, Marlins, Florida Panthers, Joe Robbie Stadium Corp., and Blockbuster Entertainment Group -- provided prosecutors copies of their contracts with Book. Nor did they turn over copies of checks written...

1695. *The Miami Herald* - May 11, 2001 - 2B Local

*OFFICIAL ACCUSES LOBBYIST OF MISHANDLING BALLPARK EFFORT*  Miami City Commissioner Arthur Teele Jr. called super-lobbyist Ron Book on the carpet Thursday, accusing him of mishandling the parking surcharge bill that was part of a financing plan to build a Florida Marlins stadium in Miami. Speaking at a City Commission meeting, Teele said Book had a conflict of interest representing Miami-Dade County, Miami and the Marlins - then demanded a timeline of every change to the bill as it made its way through the legislative session that ended last week....

1688. *Miami Herald* - September 23, 1995 - 1B LOCAL

*BAR TO LOOK INTO LOBBYIST'S ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS*  The Florida Bar is opening an inquiry into Ron Book, the lawyer-lobbyist and political fund-raiser who pleaded guilty this week to charges he funneled illegal campaign contributions through secretaries to dozens of Florida politicians. "When a lawyer is convicted of a crime, the Bar is interested," said Arlene Sankel, assistant staff counsel for the Bar's Miami office. "There will be an investigation if a lawyer is convicted of a...

While everyone was busy watching Ron Book's DUI arrest, THIS happened

It was suspected that once Ron Book and the Miami-Dade County Commission excluded registered persons from the Pottinger Agreement, there would be a push to undo the Pottinger Agreement altogether. They did. The police can now arrest the homeless for shits and giggles now. And it is all thanks to Ron Book. 

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-judge-throws-out-pottinger-homeless-protection-law-11087371

Judge Invalidates Miami's Landmark Homeless-Protection Order From 1998

JERRY IANNELLI | FEBRUARY 15, 2019 | 3:16PM

One of the nation's landmark homeless-protection laws is now gone.

Since May 2018, the City of Miami has been trying to invalidate a 1998 legal decision that prevented city cops from arresting homeless people for living their lives outside. The so-called Pottinger Agreement, named for homeless Miamian Michael Pottinger, prevented police from, say, arresting homeless people for sleeping outside or placing their items on the sidewalk.

Even with those protections in place, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said Miami cops were blatantly harassing the homeless — including spraying them with power washers and arresting a woman who was in dire need of medical care and likely died due to the detainment. The ACLU also argued the City of Miami was trying to terminate the agreement as a way to sweep homeless residents out of the rapidly gentrifying downtown area.

The ACLU fought for roughly a decade to pass the agreement. In 1988, the rights group teamed up with more than 5,000 homeless Miamians to sue the city. The ACLU said Miami cops were intentionally harassing the homeless, destroying their property, and arresting them for no reason. Courts at the time agreed: In 1998, after ten years of legal battling, the city entered into a consent decree. Per the Pottinger Agreement, cops couldn't wantonly arrest the homeless or destroy their belongings anymore. Instead, officers had to give the homeless a chance to enter a shelter before arresting them for life-sustaining activity.

In its legal filing last year, the City of Miami argued the Pottinger Agreement was no longer necessary: The city said that homeless residents have more resources now than they had in 1998 and that the agreement made it more difficult for police to patrol the city.

But homeless residents strongly disagreed.

Ben Waxman, the ACLU attorney who fought to pass the agreement, last year protected it from the City of Miami's attack. He did not respond to a phone call from New Times this afternoon.

The ACLU's legal brief provided ample evidence that Miami cops were still violating the Pottinger rules:

Plaintiffs have amassed nearly two dozen declarations from homeless persons who recently have had their property destroyed, have been ordered to leave public sidewalks while committing no crime, or have been harassed by police and/or arrested without being offered shelter. Plaintiffs possess video evidence demonstrating that the City is collecting and destroying homeless persons’ property en masse. They have video evidence of homeless persons being arrested without probable cause, and without any offer of shelter.

 The filing continued.

Beginning some three to six months ago or more, the City embarked upon a “cleanup” of various targeted areas throughout Miami. City employees, typically working under the supervision of the police, have seized what are clearly homeless people’s belongings and hauled them off like trash – at times over the desperate pleadings of individuals trying to save them. Separately or in connection with these “clean-ups,” City police officers have been threatening homeless persons with arrest – explicitly or implicitly in the form of orders to move on from an area – without offering shelter, and often without even citing any legal violation. On many occasions, these hreatst have amounted to banishment from a given area, as the police admonish homeless persons to stay away from that area and not come back. Finally, City police have failed to document their interactions with homeless persons in the “clean-ups” and sweeps, as required by the Consent Decree.

The ACLU also provided New Times with video and photographic evidence of MPD officers harassing the homeless. In one instance, cops were taped "cleaning up" a homeless encampment and destroying property that had been left on sidewalks, including crucial items such as ID cards and birth certificates.

But in the most upsetting case, Miami PD was filmed arresting a homeless woman named Tabitha Bass in March 2018. Bass had been sleeping on the street with her boyfriend, but when cops asked her for ID, she said she didn't have any. Officers then took her to jail for "obstructing the sidewalk," in what the ACLU said was a transparent Pottinger violation. But Bass was also ill at the time. She spent three days in jail without access to medical care — which advocates say directly led to her death mere weeks later.

A Drunken Ron Book crashes His Lamborghini and gets arrested for DUI in Broward County

In 2002, the NISMART-2 estimated 45 worst case "stereo kidnappings" happened that year, the kind that permeates headlines and ends in death or permanently missing.

In 2017, a total of 1,147 children 14 and younger were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those 1,147 fatalities, 220 (19%) occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes. Out of those 220 deaths, 118 (54%) were occupants of vehicles with drivers who had BACs of .08 or higher, and another 29 children (13%) were pedestrians or pedal-cyclists struck by drivers with BACs of .08 or higher. 71 (32%) were occupants of other vehicles, and 2 (1%) were drivers.

What that means is that your child is statistically more likely to die at the hands of a drunk driver than a kidnapper, much less a registered person (which is barely 5% of sex crime arrests on average).

Imagine Ronald Lee Book of 510 Coconut Palm Terrace Plantation, FL 33324, the millionaire head of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, driving around the city in an overpriced Lamborghini, drunk as a skunk, gets involved in a wreck in which the car Ron hit flipped. He failed THREE field sobriety tests. He REFUSED to take the breathalyzer.

If Ron Book is trying to claim his meds made him drive erratically, then:

1. Has Book had cancer for a decade? Other media reports found a decade worth of Book citations for reckless driving.
2. Are we honestly expectedd to believe the "most powerful lobbyist" who makes millions of dollars can't read a prescription label warning of drowsiness or not to drive while taking the meds?
3. Why would Book refuse a breathalyzer test if you are sober?
4. Why lie to the police about how he caused the accident?

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-lobbyist-ron-book-arrested-for-alleged-dui-11096630

Miami Lobbyist Ron Book Arrested for Alleged DUI
JERRY IANNELLI | FEBRUARY 25, 2019 | 2:22PM

Ron Book, one of the most powerful lobbyists in Florida, was arrested Sunday for DUI, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office online arrest database. Book is one of the most influential behind-the-scenes political figures in the state. In addition to being the lobbyist for powerful private firms such as the prison giant GEO Group, Book is also the official lobbyist for Miami-Dade County.

The Sun Sentinel first reported news of Book's arrest after a car rolled over on I-595 near Nob Hill Road. According to BSO's online records, Book was slapped with two charges: driving under the influence and damaging someone else's property. He also allegedly refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Book's bail was set at $1,500. He bonded out that night.

Notably, Book spends a great deal of time admonishing others — specifically the homeless — for similar conduct. He chairs Miami-Dade County's Homeless Trust, a position he holds despite having no background in social work, addiction therapy, or any other relevant social scientific study.

He routinely fights public programs designed to make life easier for the homeless. For example, Book once argued against the addition of more public bathrooms in Miami-Dade because in his view, making life "easier" for the homeless makes it harder for the county to reform them.

Book also drew criticism in 2017 for encouraging the arrest of homeless people as a way to give them "shelter" during Hurricane Irma. He also became nationally known as the lobbyist who put sex offenders under a bridge after New Times discovered that sex-offender-residency laws he championed forced a group of Miami's homeless sex offenders to live beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

It's unlikely that Book's arrest will affect his numerous Florida lobbying gigs. This is not his first run-in with the law: In 1986, he was charged with insurance fraud after he allegedly overstated by $10,000 the value of a car that had allegedly been stolen. Book pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and received no prison time.

Book then launched a volley of illegal political donations to local and state candidates. New Times columnist Jim DeFede wrote in 1995: "Having been scandalized in the Eighties, barely escaping the decade without a criminal conviction, and knowing that police and prosecutors were just waiting for him to trip up again, Ron Book chose to blatantly violate state law by funneling more than $30,000 in illegal campaign contributions to at least a dozen of his political cronies in state and county government. He did this not in a single campaign season, but year after year, over and over again."

He pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges, paid a $2,000 fine, and agreed to donate $40,000 to charity. Book, a lawyer, narrowly avoided being disbarred.

In the years since, he's become a lobbyist for Boca Raton's GEO Group, a private company that turns a profit from the arrest and incarceration of others.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article226755894.html

In the last 10 years, Book has received several traffic citations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but has been convicted on only four: speeding by going 46 mph in a 30 mph zone; not using a turn signal; not wearing a seat belt; and going 75 mph in a 45 mph zone. His fines paid total $783.

That bottle beside Ron isn't cancer medicine

Guess who is STILL taking GEO Group's dirty money. Take a guess. Hint, name rhymes with "crook"

Lauren Book the so-called "child victim advocate" is STILL accepting money from GEO Group, the company that settled in a Mississippi Court for allowing rampant physical AND SEXUAL ABUSE

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-democrats-indirectly-accept-private-prison-money-from-geo-group-despite-ban-11061074

Despite Ban, Florida Democrats Still Indirectly Accepting Private-Prison Money

JERRY IANNELLI | JANUARY 29, 2019 | 9:14AM

Last year, a group of progressive activists convinced the Florida Democratic Party to stop accepting campaign donations from private, for-profit prison companies. The industry, which makes billions by keeping other human beings behind bars, immorally incentivizes cities to needlessly lock people up, many activists agree. One of America's two largest private-prison firms, Boca Raton-based GEO Group, is a major donor to both political parties.

The Democratic contribution ban was approved despite centrist members' argument the party needed the money. But GEO Group's cash has still made it into party coffers. It comes from political-action committees and lobbyists associated with GEO, state donation records show.

Most obviously, there's the Future Democratic Majority PAC, which accepted a $25,000 contribution directly from GEO on October 23. Then on November 1, the PAC donated $5,000 to the Florida Dems. Future Democratic Majority was formed last year by a team of Democratic state senators including Sens. Randolph Bracy, Linda Steward, Darryl Rouson, and Lauren Book, who is the daughter of ultralobbyist Ron Book.

The elder Book has long worked as a lobbyist for GEO. And other PACs have contributed to the party after taking his money. One of these, the "Leadership for Florida" committee, accepted $25,000 from Book on September 14 and then donated $10,000 to the state party. Before 2018, the PAC had taken $100,000 directly from GEO. "Leadership for Florida" is State Sen. Lauren Book's official campaign committee.

There's another group called Truth & Transparency, Inc., which took $40,000 from Book and $40,000 from the Future Democratic Majority PAC. Then, between October 3 and November 4, Truth & Transparency funneled a whopping $279,000 to the Florida Democratic Party in five separate donations.

Though last year's resolution says the party must "refuse donations from the registered lobbyists of, and any PACs associated with, private prison companies," Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Caroline Rowland argues that, since the money passed through multiple hands before reaching party accounts, the donations do not violate party rules.

"The Florida Democratic Party did not take money from a private prison or a lobbyist associated with a private prison," she writes in an email. "The party has not taken money from a PAC or an organization with a board member that is associated with or works for a private prison. The Florida Democratic Party will continue to follow in the spirit of this resolution, rejecting money from private prisons and lobbyists who work or associate with them."

The controversy shows how difficult it is to ban powerful donors from state politics. Although companies such as GEO can no longer directly donate to the Florida Democratic Party, those companies can still easily funnel cash through chains of committees. It's up to party activists to then sort out where PAC money ultimately comes from, a necessary but time-consuming process.

The process becomes even more complicated once lobbyists are factored in. Someone such as Book works for a seemingly endless list of clients and donates money to an avalanche of candidates and committees every year. He's as omnipresent as wallpaper. Though GEO is among his clients, some party members are hostile to the notion of refusing Book's money. According to state databases, GEO currently employs at least seven lobbyists besides Book.

Reached via phone, the party's second-in-command, former public relations and political campaign consultant Juan Peñalosa, seemed frustrated that New Times even brought up the issue. He questioned whether the newspaper would also investigate Republican donations from GEO and other private-prison firms (which New Times has done repeatedly), or if New Times was "just going after Dems." [sic]

Via phone, Peñalosa said he did not know anything about the GEO-funded PACs. "I would love to get money out of politics too, but I also have a staff to pay," Peñalosa said. He added that he knew nothing of the donations and that the party doesn't "check out the donation records of every person who gives to us."

He also said Book, for example, "gives to everyone," and that it would therefore be extremely difficult to ban him or other lobbyists of his stature from donating to the party.

Civil rights activists within the party last year were frustrated with Peñalosa after, in their opinion, he worked against passing the prison-donor ban. Peñalosa denies this, but New Times previously obtained internal party emails showing Peñalosa called portions of the ban "extremely problematic" before encouraging the party to water down the resolution's language.

In fact, the party's current stance appears to differ from what Peñalosa himself stated before the resolution was passed: In the email New Times obtained, Peñalosa told party members he was worried the party would be forced to give back donations from PACs that have taken money from GEO or other private-prison firms.

Most obviously, there's the Future Democratic Majority PAC, which accepted a $25,000 contribution directly from GEO on October 23. Then on November 1, the PAC donated $5,000 to the Florida Dems. Future Democratic Majority was formed last year by a team of Democratic state senators including Sens. Randolph Bracy, Linda Steward, Darryl Rouson, and Lauren Book, who is the daughter of ultralobbyist Ron Book.

The elder Book has long worked as a lobbyist for GEO. And other PACs have contributed to the party after taking his money. One of these, the "Leadership for Florida" committee, accepted $25,000 from Book on September 14 and then donated $10,000 to the state party. Before 2018, the PAC had taken $100,000 directly from GEO. "Leadership for Florida" is State Sen. Lauren Book's official campaign committee.

There's another group called Truth & Transparency, Inc., which took $40,000 from Book and $40,000 from the Future Democratic Majority PAC. Then, between October 3 and November 4, Truth & Transparency funneled a whopping $279,000 to the Florida Democratic Party in five separate donations.

Though last year's resolution says the party must "refuse donations from the registered lobbyists of, and any PACs associated with, private prison companies," Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Caroline Rowland argues that, since the money passed through multiple hands before reaching party accounts, the donations do not violate party rules.

"The Florida Democratic Party did not take money from a private prison or a lobbyist associated with a private prison," she writes in an email. "The party has not taken money from a PAC or an organization with a board member that is associated with or works for a private prison. The Florida Democratic Party will continue to follow in the spirit of this resolution, rejecting money from private prisons and lobbyists who work or associate with them."

The controversy shows how difficult it is to ban powerful donors from state politics. Although companies such as GEO can no longer directly donate to the Florida Democratic Party, those companies can still easily funnel cash through chains of committees. It's up to party activists to then sort out where PAC money ultimately comes from, a necessary but time-consuming process.

The process becomes even more complicated once lobbyists are factored in. Someone such as Book works for a seemingly endless list of clients and donates money to an avalanche of candidates and committees every year. He's as omnipresent as wallpaper. Though GEO is among his clients, some party members are hostile to the notion of refusing Book's money. According to state databases, GEO currently employs at least seven lobbyists besides Book.

Reached via phone, the party's second-in-command, former public relations and political campaign consultant Juan Peñalosa, seemed frustrated that New Times even brought up the issue. He questioned whether the newspaper would also investigate Republican donations from GEO and other private-prison firms (which New Times has done repeatedly), or if New Times was "just going after Dems." [sic]

Via phone, Peñalosa said he did not know anything about the GEO-funded PACs. "I would love to get money out of politics too, but I also have a staff to pay," Peñalosa said. He added that he knew nothing of the donations and that the party doesn't "check out the donation records of every person who gives to us."

He also said Book, for example, "gives to everyone," and that it would therefore be extremely difficult to ban him or other lobbyists of his stature from donating to the party.

Civil rights activists within the party last year were frustrated with Peñalosa after, in their opinion, he worked against passing the prison-donor ban. Peñalosa denies this, but New Times previously obtained internal party emails showing Peñalosa called portions of the ban "extremely problematic" before encouraging the party to water down the resolution's language.

In fact, the party's current stance appears to differ from what Peñalosa himself stated before the resolution was passed: In the email New Times obtained, Peñalosa told party members he was worried the party would be forced to give back donations from PACs that have taken money from GEO or other private-prison firms.

The defeats also have critics wondering if Florida is simply a Republican stronghold nowadays. A report last week from Politico Florida confirmed that 2018's large Republican turnout in 2018 seemed more like a presidential election than a midterm year.

There are also signs the Democratic Party failed to even run a competitive race. Veteran Politico reporter Marc Caputo has reported the party was warned, repeatedly, that candidates were trailing Republicans in reaching out to Hispanic voters. But campaigns (especially Nelson's) dithered. Separately, the party's state treasurer, Francesca Menes, quit after the election and told New Times she felt the party ignored her warnings of improper attention to financial issues and insufficient attention to black voices.

The party was also accused of participating in a bizarre scheme to allegedly alter state documents to seemingly let voters "correct" ballot signatures after the deadline for doing so. The public so far knows preciously little about the allegations — including what top party officials knew. Law-enforcement officials have not charged anyone in the probe.

In the meantime, allegations of abuse and neglect at GEO-run facilities continue to pile up: Earlier this month, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that kids in the 100-plus federal migrant-detention facilities are being used as "bait" to catch deportable adult sponsors or deter immigrants from taking in refugee kids. As part of that suit, the SPLC cited a previous New Times story that revealed when immigrants in Miami's massive migrant camp turn 18, they are often handcuffed and transported to a Pompano Beach facility called the Broward Transitional Center. That building is operated by the GEO Group.

Senator Lauren Book wants to make a "Soliciting for Prostitution" Registry (SB 540)

The difference between a politician and a prostitute is that a prostitute
usually screws only one person at a time for money

Senator Lauren Book filed SB 540, which, among other things, will create a "Solicitation of Prostitution" registry. Proponents of legalizing sex work in America should be very concerned about this bill.

SB 540: Human Trafficking
GENERAL BILL by Book

Human Trafficking; Requiring the owner or operator of a public lodging establishment to train certain employees and create certain policies relating to human trafficking by a specified date; requiring the Department of Children and Families, in consultation with the Department of Law Enforcement and the Attorney General, to establish a certain direct-support organization; requiring that the criminal history record of a person who is convicted of, or enters a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to, soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another to commit prostitution, lewdness, or assignation be added to the Soliciting for Prostitution Registry, etc.

Effective Date: 7/1/2019
Last Action: 1/25/2019 Senate - Filed

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/540/BillText/Filed/HTML

Section 3. Subsection (5) of section 796.07, Florida Statutes, is amended, and subsection (2) of that section is republished, to read...

(e) The criminal history record of a person who violates paragraph (2)(f) and is found guilty as a result of a trial or enters a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, regardless of whether adjudication is withheld, must be added to the Soliciting for Prostitution Registry. Upon the person’s conviction, the clerk of the court shall forward the criminal history record of the convicted person to the Department of Law Enforcement for inclusion in the Soliciting for Prostitution Registry.

 Section 4. Section 943.0433, Florida Statutes, is created to read:

 943.0433 Soliciting for Prostitution Registry.—

(1) The department shall create and administer the Soliciting for Prostitution Registry. The clerk of the court shall forward to the department the criminal history record of a person in accordance with s. 796.07(5)(e), and the department must add the criminal history record to the registry.
 (2) The department shall adopt rules to administer this section.

The definition of IRONY: Florida's least truthful Senator files bill to make lying in legislature a felony

Senator Lauren Book

The dumbest, least truthful FloriDUH state Senator, Lauren Book and her twice-convicted criminal father have built their careers by lying numerous times before legislature. Now the bimbo filed the "Truth in Government Act" (SB 58) "deleting provisions regarding the administration of oaths and affirmations to witnesses appearing before legislative committees, and associated penalties, to conform to changes made by the act; requiring that persons addressing a legislative committee take an oath or affirmation of truthfulness; providing criminal penalties for certain false statements before a legislative committee, etc."

But it should come as no surprise that Book made herself an exclusion to the bill so she won't be locked up for lying. However, daddy Book could theoretically be jailed for lying. I'd pay to see him behind bars where he belongs!

https://floridaphoenix.com/blog/i-swear-to-tell-the-truth-lawmaker-files-bill-that-would-make-lying-in-legislature-a-felony/

“I swear to tell the truth:” Lawmaker files bill that would make lying in Legislature a felony
By Julie Hauserman -January 2, 2019

It’s no secret that the Legislature is a place where lawmakers and lobbyists sometimes – shall we say –  stretch the truth to make a point. A South Florida state senator has just filed legislation which would require people who give testimony in the Legislature to take an oath that they’ll tell the truth.

“Any person who addresses a standing or select  committee, or a subcommittee thereof, shall first declare that  he or she will speak truthfully by taking an oath or affirmation in substantially the following form: ‘Do you swear or affirm  that the information you are about to share will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?’ The person’s answer must be noted in the record,” the “Truth in Government Act” reads, in part.

The penalty for lying would be a third-degree felony.

It doesn’t apply to legislators themselves, however. But a legislator (or legislative staffer) caught in a falsehood “is subject to discipline by the presiding officer of the applicable house of the Legislature for making a false statement that he or she does not believe to be true,” the draft bill says.

The legislation was filed by Sen. Lauren Book, a Democrat from Plantation who has been in the Legislature since 2016.

The 2019 Legislature formally convenes in March, but is holding committee meetings to discuss issues and proposed legislation in January and February. The “Truth in Government Act” gets its first public discussion on Monday, Jan. 7, in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Lauren Book is jumping on the ban sex robots bandwagon

Is there no obscure fear Lauren Book will not exploit? Apparently not.

(By the way, I see Florida Politics is still pimping everything Lauren does. I wonder if there are some illegal campaign contributions in this exchange somewhere?)

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/283624-book-bill-sex-dolls

Lauren Book files state ban of ‘obscene, child-like‘ sex dolls

ByRyan NicolonDecember 17, 2018
State Sen. Lauren Book has filed a bill (SB 160) which would seek to criminalize the sale of sex dolls designed to look like young children.

“A person may not knowingly sell, lend, give away, distribute, transmit, show, or transmute … an obscene, child-like sex doll,” the bill says.

“These obscene dolls are being shipped from China to Canada and then being sent to different places throughout the country,” Book told Florida Politics about the need for the measure.

A report earlier this month from CBC details at least 42 such dolls being seized at the Canadian border in the previous two years. The sex dolls possess “child-like dimensions and features,” according to the piece.

And a few months ago in Kentucky, officials attempted to arrest and charge a man who had purchased similar dolls from China. While law enforcement argued possession of the dolls was akin to possession of child pornography, a judge dismissed all charges against the man.

The judge’s reasoning? Laws banning possession of child pornography require the involvement of an actual child, not just a child-like doll.

Given the gap in the law, Book is concerned the dolls will serve not as a replacement for the urges of pedophiles, but as a catalyst for perpetrators to seek out victims.

“That is not a cure for anything,” Book argued. “The doll just isn’t enough, and then they act out again sexually on children.”

Book said she had drafted a version of the bill during the 2018 Legislative Session, but it was not taken up because it was not filed in time.

“We want to make sure that law enforcement has all the tools that they need,” Book added.

The lawmaker admitted people may be surprised that this issue would require legislation. But she said the measure is necessary to get out in front of the issue, especially as the technology to create such lifelike representations will only become more advanced.

“It’s something that’s happening and something that we need to be paying attention to.”

The U.S. House has also passed a bill that would make these dolls illegal at the federal level. That bill, however, has stalled out in the U.S. Senate.

Book’s bill would also bar any offers to sell the dolls, as well as possessing such a doll with the intent to sell. Advertising the objects would also be criminalized. A violation would be a third-degree felony.

Book, a Plantation Democrat who represents Senate District 32 in Broward County, has made preventing the abuse of children a top priority of hers in the Legislature. She was named chair of the Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs late last month.

I see the lying Lauren Book is still sponging off her charity a la the Donald Trump Foundation. Corruption at its nastiest.

Lauren Book finally found a non-victim cause truly worthy of her vast powers as a crooked politician

We all know Lauren Book is full of shit, but you have to wonder just what is going on with the Book family with supporting this bill. Do the Books have stock in adult diapers? Or do they just use an awful lot of them because they're full of shit and/or have a diaper/poop fetish? One can only wonder. 

https://www.billtrack50.com/BillDetail/995286

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
Section 1. Paragraph (ppp) is added to subsection (7) of section 212.08, Florida Statutes, to read:

212.08 Sales, rental, use, consumption, distribution, and storage tax; specified exemptions.—The sale at retail, the rental, the use, the consumption, the distribution, and the storage to be used or consumed in this state of the following are hereby specifically exempt from the tax imposed by this chapter.

(7) MISCELLANEOUS EXEMPTIONS.—Exemptions provided to any entity by this chapter do not inure to any transaction that is otherwise taxable under this chapter when payment is made by a representative or employee of the entity by any means, including, but not limited to, cash, check, or credit card, even when that representative or employee is subsequently reimbursed by the entity. In addition, exemptions provided to any entity by this subsection do not inure to any transaction that is otherwise taxable under this chapter unless the entity has obtained a sales tax exemption certificate from the department or the entity obtains or provides other documentation as required by the department. Eligible purchases or leases made with such a certificate must be in strict compliance with this subsection and departmental rules, and any person who makes an exempt purchase with a certificate that is not in strict compliance with this subsection and the rules is liable for and shall pay the tax. The department may adopt rules to administer this subsection.

(ppp) Diapers and incontinence products.—The sale for human use of diapers, incontinence undergarments, incontinence pads, or incontinence liners is exempt from the tax imposed by this chapter.

Section 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 2020.

False Flag: Senator Lauren Book and Florida Politics create story suspiciously claiming she was target of the #MAGAbomber

The Florida Politics blog is deeply in bed with FloriDUH Senator Lauren Book. They are the only media outlet to publish this obvious attempt to claim victimhood by the premier professional victim of South Florida.

Bimbo Book claims the FBI showed up at her door and that she was a potential target. By now, these bombs have all been found. Obviously, if this idiot had been a target of the #MAGAbomber, then how is it no bomb ever showed up? After all, the bombs were sent from her own town. Cesar Sayoc was arrested in Plantation. Lauren Book's claims are nothing more than an attempt to attract sympathy, something this professional victim does for a living. This claim is a false flag.

Be greateful, my fellow Floridians-- you dodged a worse bomb in having this Democrat version of Sarah Palin miss out on being Andrew Gillim's running mate. We can all breathe a sign of relief knowing that the state could've been controlled by this complete fucktard.

It must really irk her knowing that most people outside of those in the Florida Legislature, her dad, his cronies, her cronies, and the Florida Politics blog couldn't give two shits about her. She simply wants to feel important, and her cronies at the Florida Politics blog are quick to play the enabler role.

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/279954-lauren-book-mail-bomber

Lauren Book among potential targets for accused mail bomber

JACOB OGLES
23 hours ago
A man accused of sending pipe bombs to liberal leaders across the country also scoured the internet for information on Democratic state Sen. Lauren Book of South Florida.

FBI agents came to Book’s home to inform her of concerns that a pipe bomb may yet be sent to her, the Plantation Democrat said.

“When I went into this, I knew politics could be messy,” Book said, “but not somebody sending you a pipe bomb filled with glass to blow you and your kids up.”

Book wasn’t home when agents arrived. She was at the airport about to fly to Tallahassee for a United Way Women’s Leadership Breakfast to hear CNN host and author Lisa Ling speak.

But husband Blair Byrnes and her two infants were at home. As she sat at an airport ready to board a plane, Book listened to FBI agents brief her from her living room while her children napped upstairs.

The agents told Book that Cesar Sayoc, the man investigators believe sent explosive materials to more than a dozen left-leaning public figures in American politics, had also done research on Book’s record of public service.

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Oct. 26 that agents arrested Sayoc in connection to pipe bombs sent to billionaire George Soros, former President Barack Obama and individuals at CNN, among others.

But authorities told NBC News that Sayoc kept a list of more than 100 possible targets, and potential victims would be notified individually.

Authorities arrested Sayoc in Plantation, in the heart of Book’s own district, though they now say he lived in Aventura. His mother Madeline Giardello is president of an area condo association.

In searching Sayoc’s personal computer, the FBI told Book, investigators found significant research into Book’s career, including votes on various pieces of legislation in Tallahassee.

“It’s hard to believe because I had only been there two years,” Book says.

Indeed, when news of a threat to political figures first broke days earlier, police set up in Book’s office, but her husband joked no one targeting major political figures and national news personalities would care about a state senator.

He was wrong.

At the time, it did raise concerns for Book when one of the bomber’s packages was returned to the Sunrise office of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Book previously used that same space for a temporary district office, which filled her thoughts as she watched news footage of authorities sweeping the office.

But while that seemed eerie, news Book actually could be the target of a local terrorist proved shocking.

FBI officials told Book she needed to take alternate routes when she drove to work, and call authorities in the event any unfamiliar packages showed up on her doorstep, even though the suspect was already in custody.

To date, it’s only been anticipated packages from Amazon and other retailers that showed up on Book’s doorstep, she jokes, but as she tries to keep the topic light, she says it’s only because of the terrifying truth of the threat to her life.

But when Book got involved fighting sex trafficking, she knew which groups would be angry and upset, she says. She could anticipate trouble from a known realm of unsavory and identified individuals.

In this case, she seems to have been targeted by a right-wing lunatic for no other reason than being a Democrat.

“This won’t stop you from doing your work,” she says, “but it does make me more aware, and it makes me want to be more protective of myself and my kids.”