Speaker of the House Dean Cannon listens to infinity percent more Jay-Z than you probably would have guessed.

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via Wikimedia Commons user Mwnuk

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John L. Mica

​A maddening story in the New York Times this morning about the House transportation bill has a Chicago placeline, but the real story is here in Florida. Specifically the seventh congressional district, which elected John Mica to Congress. This guy is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and now he's put forward a bill that even Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood calls "the worst transportation bill I've ever seen during 35 years of public service."More >>

Gov. Scott, still think justice is colorblind?

​Last year, when Gov. Rick Scott and his cabinet enacted an archaic ban on the voting rights of ex-felons, supporters called the ban colorblind. They said making nonviolent felons wait five years after completing their sentences to apply for the right to vote again had nothing to do with Florida's ugly history of suppressing African-American voters.

Well, a PBS documentary that aired last night begs to differ. Slavery by Another Name documents with chilling precision the South's history of arresting African-Americans for petty crimes such as vagrancy and then forcing them, without a trial, into years of hard labor. Such convict-leasing programs lasted 80 years after the Civil War, until the 1940s.

In Florida, African-Americans were forced to work in turpentine camps, on railroads, and in lumber yards. In the 1880s, it was illegal for an African-American man to changeMore >>

​If you need affirmation that West Palm Beach is too rich rich for your blood, Forbes has you covered. More >>

​For what it's worth, there are only two states in the nation with more registered sex offenders than Florida.

Florida's 57,896 sex criminals puts the Sunshine State behind only California (106,216) and Texas (68,529), and even though Florida's population is about 400,000 less than New York's, the Sunshine State is home to nearly 25,000 more sex offenders.

According to statistics released this week by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, there's been an increase of 7,555 sex offenders nationwide since the last survey -- in June 2011 -- bringing the country to a grand total of 747,408.

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​Florida led the nation in police officers killed in the line of duty in 2011, according to a report released today by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Fourteen of the 173 cops killed this year were in Florida, and four other states had at least 10 police fatalities.

According to the report, 68 cops were shot and killed this year nationwide -- the first time in 14 years that more officers died from firearms-related incidents than traffic-related incidents.

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sondheimguide.com

​In the first population estimates since 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today that Florida gained 256,000 people between April 2010 and July 2011, the third-highest total behind Texas and California.

In that same time, New York gained only 87,000 people, which means Florida is getting closer to becoming the third-most populous state.

New York's currently around 19.5 million people, and Florida's around 19.1 million.

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​They didn't have much reason to do it before, but the Bahamas and Cuba have defined an international boundary in the waters off the coast of Florida. Now, the reason is clear: Both countries are poised to start drilling for oil from floating rigs.

Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham cochaired a commission that investigated the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010; now he's raising questions about the safety of this drilling off our shores and talking about preparing an international plan to deal with a potential spill.

One problem, though: That requires having a conversation with Cuba.

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Colin Au: No B.S. from this guy.

​The CEO of Genting Group, which bought the Miami Herald's property on Biscayne Bay earlier this year and dreams of turning it into a mega-casino, wasn't exactly subtle when he said the project would result in a net gain of jobs for the state -- especially in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

At the first hearing about the casinos, somebody asked CEO Colin Au about claims that building a casino would cost the state jobs instead of generating them. (Here in Broward, pari-mutuel owners and the Seminole tribe also worry about losing gamers across the county line.)

A video of Au's blunt response is after the jump.More >>