Florida Center for Government Accountability

As previously reported in an ongoing Florida Trident investigative series, the state’s Florida Pregnancy Support Services Program, which provides taxpayers’ money to more than 100 anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)” around the state, including Grace House, are Christian-based organizations and often identify themselves as “ministries” and “missions.” Several legal experts have said the program runs afoul of the U.S. and Florida constitutions, the latter of which expressly forbids the state from aiding religious organizations. The stated goal of the program is to convince clients to carry their pregnancies to term rather than having abortions.Despite its inherent problems, the program is now bursting at the seams in Florida. Its annual budget has ballooned from $4 million to $25 million a year, an increase written into the controversial six-week abortion ban legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April.

Barbara Petersen talks with News Service of Florida's Dara Kam about the Center’s work, which has garnered national attention in recent weeks, and why she's "deeply worried" about the future of open government in Florida.

Sarasota police have recovered video of Florida GOP chair and alleged victim in rape investigation

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.

A settlement has now been reached requiring the Florida Department of Health to release COVID-19 data withheld from the public during the height of the pandemic.The Florida Center for Government Accountability and former State Representative Carols Guillermo Smith fought for release of the data in a two-year legal battle. We take a closer look at the settlement and what release of the hidden data will mean going forward in a conversation with Smith and the Florida Center for Government Accountability’s Michael Barfield.

An investigation by the Florida Elections Commission found that Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall violated the state's election code during his campaign last year. Hall’s campaign ads falsely implied he was the incumbent in the District 2 race rather than a challenger, according to an FEC consent order drafted in May.

Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman doesn’t want the public to know the identity of two deputies involved in the shooting of 65-year-old Jeremiah Evans and has gone to great lengths to keep their names, which are public information under Florida’s Public Records Act, a secret.