Closed government

By Michael Moline | Editor in Chief

In November 2024, the Phoenix reported that the Department of Juvenile Justice was allowing kids in detention to use state-issued laptops for purposes other than study, including accessing online porn. The department insisted it had a handle on the situation, but we’ve been unable to verify that because the agency hasn’t fulfilled our requests for the necessary documents. It’s been two years since we first asked, and the only response has been, "Your request is still in process," and, "I have no updates at this time." Bear in mind, the Florida Constitution gives "every person" the right to "inspect or copy any public record" and state law requires agencies to make records "open for personal inspection and copying by any person," calling it a "duty" of agencies. “Once upon a time, the default setting was disclosure; the default setting now is to delay, to deny, or ignore,” says Bobby Block of the First Amendment Foundation.

Ashley Moody is attacking Nixon for joining the Democratic Socialists of America, describing its positions on policing and prisons as “anti-American.” Nixon maintains she has never advocated defunding the police and abolishing prisons, as Moody contends. “What I have called for is a people’s budget and a people’s agenda, which is what I will continue to call for, because I believe that hardworking everyday people should get to shape what our communities look like and what our economies look like,” Nixon says. “I know people are trying to box me in, but, like, we are a big-tent party as far as the Democratic Party. And all of the Republicans who are fighting for higher office, Byron Donalds, Ashley Moody, they don’t have a leg to stand on because they are the reason that we are in the mess right now.”

Columnist Diane Roberts focuses on our state attorney general’s use of litigation to pursue government activism, “darting from human trafficking prosecutions to going after shoplifting gangs to trying to outlaw drag queen Christmas shows to accusing Microsoft of anti-Christian bias to cheerleading book bans.” He’s threatening a criminal investigation into violence in the WNBA, which has exactly zero nexus to Florida. Now he alleges The New York Times committed financial wrongdoing because of Nick Kristoph column detailing abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers, West Bank settlers, and domestic security forces, on the theory the reporting could undermine the paper’s credibility and tank its stock value (Florida holds shares). “Could it simply be another ultra-conservative attack on freedom of the press?” Roberts wonders. “Or is it a publicity grab by an ambitious guy running for a high-profile gig as attorney general of the third largest state in the nation?”

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