Florida Center for Government Accountability

Sarasota County Commission chair Mike Moran has slashed funding for early learning and childcare programs, calling them “socialism.” Now running for county tax collector, his campaign emphasizes a focus on “making government accountable to the taxpayers.”But a ledger obtained by the Florida Trident through a public records request raises questions about Moran’s accountability. According to the records, Moran spent more than $36,000 of taxpayers’ money during a recent 18-month period on lavish trips to Las Vegas, New York City, and California, indulging in expensive steakhouses, wine, and tequila shots.

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.”

According to some national law enforcement agencies and policing experts, a PIT maneuver performed that night — such as the one that lead to the deaths of four teenagers in Alachua County, is anything but proper.

Amanda Cochran of Alva has tossed her hat in the ring for Lee County Commissioner after another candidate she supported withdrew in a campaign that will see her face off against incumbent commissioner Mike Greenwell in the GOP primary.

Former Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler and his wife Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota School Board Member and cofounder of the conservative group Moms for Liberty, have filed a lawsuit seeking to bar the release of records involved in the husband’s criminal rape investigation.The once powerful Republican power couple sued the City of Sarasota and State Attorney’s Office specifically to prevent the release to the media text messages they sent to each other recovered by police during the now-closed investigation.

Craig Ridley’s killing was just one of a record 481 deaths in Florida prisons in 2017, marking an upward trend that has now spanned more than two decades. In December 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a report showing the number of homicides in state and federal institutions in 2019 was almost quadruple that of 2001, when the bureau began collecting data about mortality in the nation’s prisons. In fact, 2019 saw the highest number of homicides ever recorded by the bureau, and prisoners were nearly three times more likely to die by homicide than other U.S. residents.

In the wake of 2022's Hurricane Ian some allies of Gov. Ron DeSantis had a faster track for funds. Those on the outside were forced to wait for the same funds.

The executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute and former deputy executive director of the Florida Commission on Ethics, speaks about ethics in government and an unprecedented threat via the Florida Senate’s recent passage of Senate Bill (SB) 7014.

A 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.

While Republican power couple Christian and Bridget Ziegler publicly pushed for “family values” and backed an agenda widely viewed as anti-LGBTQ, they were secretly on the “hunt” for threesome lovers, newly released police reports from the husband’s now-closed rape investigation reveal.Among the startling evidence recovered from Christian’s cell phone, according to the report, was a list of women, including the alleged sexual assault victim’s name, with a one-word subheading: “F- - -.”