Bob Norman/Florida Trident
Special to WGCU-
Members of the government board overseeing the Sebring Regional Airport — which includes the historic Sebring International Raceway — tend to speak slowly in a southern drawl, but they pulled a fast one last year with the sale of 17 acres of publicly owned land.Without properly notifying the public of the proposed sale or opening it up for competitive bids, the city-appointed Sebring Airport Authority sold the land to a partnership that included local developer Mark Gose, who has private business ties to several board members, and former board member John Haviland.
-
In an exclusive story, The Florida Center for Government Accountability's Florida Trident reports that Trump VP hopeful Byron Donalds’ ex-wife shares her story, says what he’s doing is “super-dangerous.”
-
While Moms For Liberty cofounder Bridget Ziegler and her husband, former Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, fight in court today to keep law enforcement records related to the latter’s closed rape investigation from public view, a recently released police report provides startling details about the couple’s sexual practices. The report, obtained by the Florida Trident and authored by Sarasota police Det. Angela Cox, recounts how Christian Ziegler went “on the prowl” in bars for women to bring home to Bridget, a Sarasota County School Board member who has backed a number of anti-LGBTQ measures at both the state and local level, for threesome encounters.
-
Corrosive” Florida Senate bill will hide public corruption rather than expose it, ethics expert saysA top Florida ethics expert is sounding the alarm about an ethics bill passed by the state Senate Thursday that would make it easier for corrupt officials to avoid investigation – and much harder for residents to hold them to account.“This bill would be incredibly destructive and corrosive,” said Carolyn Klancke, who heads the non-profit Florida Ethics Institute and is a past deputy executive director and general counsel for the Florida Commission on Ethics.
-
Sarasota police have recovered video of Florida GOP chair and alleged victim in rape investigation
-
-
Christian Ziegler, Florida’s GOP chairman and husband of Sarasota County School Board member and Moms of Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, is under criminal investigation after a woman filed a complaint with the Sarasota Police Department alleging the longtime Republican official had raped her, according to a heavily redacted police report obtained by the Florida Trident.
-
Collier County Commissioner Bill McDaniel has been sued after using private email server to conduct county business; taxpayers to foot the bill.
-
On paper, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno and alleged serial swindler Malek Khalil line up as natural adversaries, not friends.Marceno is a popular lawman who grandstands over drug offenders and other defendants sent to the Lee County Jail, or “Marceno’s Motel,” as he calls it. Khalil has been found by civil courts to have committed fraud, racketeering, and theft in ripping off at least $2 million dollars from his victims in the murky world of pain and rehab clinics that cater to plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits.
-
When Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno needs to unwind, he likes to gamble – and his financial disclosure forms indicate it’s been an extremely lucrative vice for him.When Marceno filed his 2022 financial disclosure forms with the state last month, he listed $168,696 in extra income from gambling at Seminole Tribe casinos, including the Hard Rock in Hollywood.