Cuba Embargo in Florida Goes Too Far, Court Says

Courthouse News Service
By IULIA FILIP

Florida cannot stop companies with remote business ties to Cuba from bidding on state or local public contracts, the 11th Circuit ruled.

     Florida passed the Cuba Amendment in May 2012 to ostensibly prevent companies that did business in Cuba or Syria, or were related to such companies, from bidding on state or local public contracts worth at least $1 million. Slated to take effect on July 1, 2012, the law would have applied to any company whose subsidiaries, parent companies or affiliates had business ties to Cuba or Syria, including distant foreign affiliates.

     It also would have required companies to certify that they did not have business operations in any of the two countries when submitting a bid or renewing a contract with a government agency. Any agency or local government entity participating in the contract could impose a civil penalty of $2 million or twice the amount of the contract against companies that filed false certifications.

     Coral Gables-based company Odebrecht Construction sued the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in June 2012 to prevent it from enforcing the amendment against the company. Odebrecht, whose Brazilian parent company had unrelated foreign subsidiaries that did business in Cuba, was one of more than 200 Florida businesses potentially affected by the amendment.

     Claiming that most of its income comes from infrastructure and transportation projects, Odebrecht said the law would prevent it from bidding on high-value public contracts in Florida, including several FDOT contracts worth up to $1.8 billion for which it qualified.

     Odebrecht argued that the law violated the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution because it conflicted directly with the federal regime of sanctions against Cuba, and weakened the president's ability to formulate uniform policies concerning Cuba. A federal judge agreed last year and blocked the amendment before it took effect.

     A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit refused to lift the injunction last week, finding that the state law conflicted with the comprehensive economic sanctions the federal government had imposed for decades to limit American companies from doing business in Cuba.

More on Courthouse News Service >>

Cuba Embargo in Florida Goes Too Far, Court Says

First look inside Florida sinkhole home that swallowed a man while he slept

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First look inside Florida sinkhole home that swallowed a man while he slept

Cyberattack on Florida election is first known case in US, experts say

Tim Chapman / Miami Herald

About 2,000 rejected absentee ballots at Miami-Dade Elections Department, mostly for lack of signatures or review of signatures from the last election.

By Gil Aegerter
Staff Writer, NBC News

An attempt to illegally obtain absentee ballots in Florida last year is the first known case in the U.S. of a cyberattack against an online election system, according to computer scientists and lawyers working to safeguard voting security.

The case involved more than 2,500 “phantom requests” for absentee ballots, apparently sent to the Miami-Dade County elections website using a computer program, according to a grand jury report on problems in the Aug. 14 primary election. It is not clear whether the bogus requests were an attempt to influence a specific race, test the system or simply interfere with the voting. Because of the enormous number of requests – and the fact that most were sent from a small number of computer IP addresses in Ireland, England, India and other overseas locations – software used by the county flagged them and elections workers rejected them.

Computer experts say the case exposes the danger of putting states’ voting systems online – whether that’s allowing voters to register or actually vote.

“It’s the first documented attack I know of on an online U.S. election-related system that’s not (involving) a mock election,” said David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who is on the board of directors of the Verified Voting Foundation and the California Voter Foundation.

Other experts contacted by NBC News agreed that the attempt to obtain the ballots is the first known case of a cyberattack on voting, though they noted that there are so many local elections systems in use that it's possible that a similar attempt has gone unnoticed.

There have been allegations of election system hacking before in the U.S., but investigations of irregularities have found only software glitches, voting machine failures, voter error or inconclusive evidence. Where there has been evidence of a computer security breach -- such as a 2006 incident in Sarasota, Fla., in which  a computer worm that had been around for years raised havoc with the county elections voter database -- it was unclear whether the worm's appearance was timed to interfere with the election.

In any case, experts say they’ve been warning about this sort of attack for years.

“This has been in the cards, it’s been foreseeable,” said law Professor Candice Hoke, founding director of the Center for Election Integrity at Cleveland State University.

The primary election in Miami-Dade County in August 2012 involved state and local races along with U.S. Senate and congressional contests (see a sample ballot here). The Miami Herald, which first reported the irregularities, said the fraudulent requests for ballots targeted Democratic voters in the 26th Congressional District and Republicans in Florida House districts 103 and 112. None of the races’ outcomes could have been altered by that number of phantom ballots, the Herald said.

Overseas “anonymizers” -- proxy servers that make Internet activity untraceable -- kept the originating computers’ location secret and prevented law enforcement from figuring out who was responsible, according to the grand jury report, issued in December. The state attorney’s office closed the case in January without identifying a suspect.

Read the Miami-Dade County grand jury report (PDF) >>

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Cyberattack on Florida election is first known case in US, experts say

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Thousands of sharks close Florida beaches

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VIDEO: Man Missing in Sinkhole

Florida judge jails teenager for swearing at him in court

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Florida judge jails teenager for swearing at him in court

Hundreds Hunt for Invasive Pythons in Everglades

AssociatedPress

Hundreds Hunt for Invasive Pythons in Everglades

El nuevo congresista [D] de origen cubano Joe Garcia sobre Cuba-EEUU

diariodecuba

martinoticias.com

En relación con la política hacia Cuba, ¿hay motivos para preocuparse por la designación de John Kerry como secretario de Estado?

No lo creo. Nadie conoce mejor a Kerry que el senador Bob Menéndez, y Bob lo está apoyando. Conozco la posición de John Kerry, en el pasado me he sentado con él a hablar sobre Cuba. Me parece que la política [hacia La Habana] está bien marcada por el presidente y va a permanecer en ese camino. No veo grandes preocupaciones. A nadie se le puede ocurrir que John Kerry es procomunista, pues luchó contra los comunistas en Vietnam. Es una persona que tiene una larga trayectoria de política de Estado, altamente respetado, aunque haya tenido sus discrepancias en algunos temas.

Sin embargo, Kerry bloqueó durante algún tiempo los programas pro-democracia…

Él ha tenido sus posiciones, pero el presidente Obama ha sido claro en estos temas. El secretario de Estado vendrá con una visión un poco diferente de la de Hillary Clinton, pero la política que implementaron Obama y Hillary ha tenido efectos. No exactamente los que todos quisiéramos, pero sí un efecto positivo en la sociedad civil cubana. Me imagino que el senador Kerry tomará las lecciones que hemos aprendido con todos esos programas, y las implementará.

En su opinión, ¿qué otra cosa debería hacer el presidente en los próximos cuatro años en relación con Cuba?

Trabajar por la amplitud de la sociedad civil, y eso no solamente desde el punto de vista político. Es también con la economía, desde el político hasta la peluquera, y todo lo que cae entre esas personas. Cuanto más sociedad civil haya, más espacio político habrá. Debemos encontrar áreas donde seguir ese impacto.

Continuar leyendo en diariodecuba >>

El nuevo congresista [D] de origen cubano Joe Garcia sobre Cuba-EEUU

Obama elegibility: So fishy, even a Democrat can smell it

WND/ Bob Unruh
Florida, the battleground for many elections, has an opportunity right now to resolve the issue of Barack Obama’s eligibility, according to a court filing in a case brought by a Democrat under state law that allows such challenges.

“On Nov. 6, 2012, the state of Florida held its 2012 general election. On Nov. 10, 2012, defendant Barack Hussein Obama was declared the official winner of the Florida general election. Yet defendant Obama has never established his eligibility for the presidency of the United States,” says a filing today from attorney Larry Klayman.

“Indeed, neither defendant Obama, nor the Democratic Party of Florida, has even stated that defendant Obama is a ‘natural born citizen,’” the filing said. “The only evidence of defendant Obama’s alleged birth within the United States has come in the form of an electronic version posted on the Internet. However, there has been evidence to show that this ‘birth certificate’ has either been altered or is entirely fraudulent.”

The filing was a response to state officials’ motion to dismiss the case brought on behalf of Michael C. Voeltz. The case was filed before the election, and was thrown out by a judge who said it wasn’t timely. It was refiled after the election, and the current document seeks an immediate hearing, as provided by state law.

“Section 102.168(7), Florida statutes, provides that ‘any candidate, qualified elector, or taxpayer presenting such a contest to a circuit judge in entitled to an immediate hearing,” Klayman wrote. “Plaintiff Michael Voeltz specifically requested an expedited hearing in his prayer for relief. … Yet even if he had not specifically requested such relief, which he did, the Florida statutes still mandate that plaintiff is entitled to an immediate hearing by law simply through the act of filing the lawsuit in front of a circuit judge.”

The case challenges Obama’s presence on the 2012 presidential election ballot because of questions over his constitutional eligibility.

“Defendant Barack Hussein Obama is a direct threat to the safety and security of the United States, and its Constitution, which plaintiff must protect and defend by oath,” according to the complaint.

As WND reported, Voeltz, who identifies himself as “a registered member of the Democratic Party, voter and taxpayer in Broward County,” has challenged Obama’s eligibility, arguing that the “natural born citizen” clause was rightly understood in historical context to mean a child not only born in the U.S., but born to two American-citizen parents, so as not to have divided loyalties. Obama, however, readily admits to being born a dual citizen because of his father’s British citizenship.

Is Obama constitutionally eligible to serve? Here’s WND’s complete archive of news reports on the issue

The original case sought to exclude Obama from the 2012 ballot. Klayman and Voeltz claimed that Obama is not a natural born citizen as required by Article 2, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, because he was born a British subject.

The case cited the evidence produced by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s special investigative unit, which has asserted that the birth documentation from Hawaii that Obama claimed was “proof positive” of his Hawaiian birth is not real.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/democrat-demands-obama-eligibility-hearing-now/#GiyhEpdebhHDAGKP.99

Obama elegibility: So fishy, even a Democrat can smell it

Money & Fear: Cocodrilo del Nilo en los Everglades

sustituyendo a las boas por el "devorador de hombres". 
------------------------------
Maria Elvira Salazar

Money & Fear: Cocodrilo del Nilo en los Everglades

Eligibility challenge returns to haunt Florida

WND/ Bob Unruh

cowboybyte.com

A lawsuit challenging Barack Obama’s presence on the 2012 presidential election ballot because of questions over his constitutional eligibility that was thrown out by a judge who earlier determined it wasn’t timely has returned to haunt election officials in the state with a request that the Obama victory results be quashed.

“Defendant Barack Hussein Obama is a direct threat to the safety and security of the United States, and its Constitution, which plaintiff must protect and defend by oath,” according to the complaint, which was delivered to Secretary of State Ken Detzner today.

The case earlier this year was dismissed by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis, who said Obama’s eligibility could not be challenged at that time because under Florida election law, technically, Obama hadn’t been nominated to the position.

As WND reported, Michael Voeltz, who identifies himself as “a registered member of the Democratic Party, voter and taxpayer in Broward County,” had challenged Obama’s eligibility, arguing that the “natural born citizen” clause was rightly understood in historical context to mean a child not only born in the U.S., but born to two American-citizen parents, so as not to have divided loyalties. Obama, however, readily admits to being born a dual citizen because of his father’s British citizenship.

In his decision then, Lewis noted that the United States Supreme Court has concluded that “every person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, becomes at once a citizen of the United States.”

However, attorney Larry Klayman, who is representing Voeltz, said, “The judge equated being a ‘citizen’ with a ‘natural born citizen’ and cited no authority to conclude the two terms are the same. He quotes other state’s cases, where judges reached that conclusion, but that’s not precedent for him. What other courts said in lower cases means nothing to him.”

Klayman also had been concerned that the judge determined the burden of proof that Obama is ineligible fell on Voeltz – but then refused to authorize discovery in the case which could have confirmed that eligibility status.

“How can you say we have the burden of proof, then not allow discovery?” Klayman asked. “He says we have burden, but doesn’t allow us to meet it.”

And he said Voeltz has standing to bring the case, under Florida law. More >>

Eligibility challenge returns to haunt Florida

Feds probe letters warning Florida voters they're not eligible to vote

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Feds probe letters warning Florida voters they're not eligible to vote

More suspicious voter forms found in Florida

y los medios de prensa del sureno estado sin darse por enterados del asunto.

------------------------------- 

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

After reports of suspicious forms surfaced in Florida, the company — owned by Nathan Sproul, who has been involved in voter registration efforts since at least the 2004 presidential election — was fired last week by the state Republican Party and the Republican National Committee. The party had hired it to conduct drives in Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia.

In Colorado, a young woman employed by Strategic Allied was shown on a video outside a store in Colorado Springs recently telling a potential voter that she wanted to register only Republicans and that she worked for the county clerk’s office. The woman was fired, said Ryan Call, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.

The Florida Division of Elections has forwarded the reports of possible fraud to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for investigation. Prosecutors in some affected counties are also investigating. It is unclear how many forms have been forwarded, in all: in Palm Beach County, the election supervisor found 106 suspicious forms, but the number in several other counties is far lower.

Bay County has found eight suspicious forms with the Republican Party registration code connected to Strategic Allied. In Pasco County, three have been found.

The state Republican Party, which paid the company $1.3 million to register voters here, said it would file an elections fraud complaint against Strategic Allied, which is based in Tempe, Ariz.  More >>

More suspicious voter forms found in Florida

Civil Indigent - Documentary

DocChannel

Civil Indigent - Documentary

83,000 fallecidos en Florida registrados para votar

WND/ Roger Hedgecock

Voter fraud is the big issue that may decide the outcome of this election

In Seattle, Wash., last month, Brenda Charlston received a voter registration form in the mail from the Voter Participation Center with all the blanks filled in for “Rosie Charlston,” her black Labrador who died in 1998.

The Obama supporting center says it has mailed some 5 million forms using commercially available databases to target Democratic-leaning groups such as unmarried women. What did they use in the Brenda/Rosie mailing? The dead dog mailing list?

In June, in Buford County, Va., Tim Morris received a filled-out voter registration form for “Mozart Morris” addressed to “Mo,” his dog that passed away two years before. Again, the form came in the mail from the Voter Participation Center.

In Bernalillo County, N.M., an anonymous Republican registered his dog as a voter at a voter registration booth at the University of New Mexico to show how easy it would be to defraud the system. Election officials claim they followed the law and referred the case to state prosecutors for criminal investigation of the dog owner!

Election officials throughout the country report a surge of voter registrations from animals, dead people and noncitizens.

Republicans believe Obama is depending on these registrations to win the election and want laws requiring voter ID at the polls. Democrats charge that Republicans are trying to suppress the vote to increase the odds of a Romney win.

This Democrat charge formed the basis of a lawsuit by Obama’s Department of Justice to block a Texas law that requires voter photo ID to vote. Texas is one of 26 states with such laws.

The DOJ claimed the requirement would bar eligible voters from voting and that the cost of getting the proper ID amounted to a “poll tax.” The Texas law provides for a free state ID to anyone lacking a driver’s license or other photo ID.

A study by a DOJ expert produced a long list of Texans who lacked government-issued photo ID and, it was alleged, were thereby disenfranchised. The list and the study were a fraud.

The list turned out to contain the names of 50,000 dead people, 330,377 seniors who can vote by mail without ID, 261,887 voters who included a driver’s license number on their voter registration form, 800,000 Texans who were, in fact, registered to vote and who did have a government issued photo ID.

The list also contained the names of Texans with U.S. military ID (acceptable for photo ID to vote), former Texas residents who had moved to other states, disabled voters who were exempt from the Texas photo ID law and noncitizens.

Strangely, the list of those who “lacked government issued ID” included former President George W. Bush, two state legislators and the wife of another, former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, current U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and even the Texas director of elections, Keith Ingram – who was listed not once but twice!

However, even the Texas attorney general has yet to find the names of any dogs, living or dead, on the list.

Obama’s DOJ also went after Florida for passing a similar law. It seems that Obama voters who were dead, felons or noncitizens would not get to vote.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered county election officials to examine the integrity of the voting rolls. In the first review, the names of 83,000 dead people were discovered still registered to vote.  More >>

83,000 fallecidos en Florida registrados para votar

The Cuban Government and Multi-Million Dollar Medicare Fraud in South Florida

by Chris Simmons

The dilapidated state of the Cuban economy has left the Cuban government scrambling for ways to obtain hard currency. Cuba has contrived ways to benefit from leasing doctors, nurses, teachers, and security agents abroad; more recently, Cuba has also found ways to capitalize on large-scale Medicare fraud, possibly committing economic warfare on the United States.

Medicare fraud is one of the highest dollar volume crimes in the United States. In October of 2009, it was estimated that such fraud has reached $60 billion a year. (1) And South Florida has become the epicenter of this federal crime.

Federal authorities, in July of 2010 in conjunction with the first Healthcare Fraud Summit (taking place, rather symbolically, in Miami), led a crackdown in the 5 major U.S. cities that have the dubious recognition of being the largest Medicare fraud perpetrators: Miami, Brooklyn, Baton Rouge, Detroit, and Houston. Of the 94 people charged by authorities for fraud, 25 are from Miami-Dade. (2) Florida’s mental health claims are 4 times higher than Texas, where healthcare fraud is also substantial (Florida’s population is ¾ that of Texas’). Florida’s physical and speech therapy claims are 140 times higher than New York’s (while New York’s population has 1 million more people than Florida’s) and 10 times higher than in California (which has a population double the size of Florida’s). Ultimately, South Florida is responsible for one-third of the nation’s healthcare fraud prosecutions. (3)

The question should be posed: What makes South Florida different from any other region and can account for the troubling number of fraudulent claims emanating from the area?

See the entire assessment here:  http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FOCUS_Web/Issue137.htm

The Cuban Government and Multi-Million Dollar Medicare Fraud in South Florida

Brazilians snap up South Florida real estate

By Michelle Balani and Mary Murphy
Rock Center

Dressed in an expensive pinstriped suit and sporting the latest Louis Vuitton sunglasses, Miami real estate broker Cristiano Piquet is ready to make a sale. He has a client in his shiny new white Rolls-Royce, and they’re on their way to see $9 million apartment at the W Hotel on South Beach.

Piquet’s client, 32-year-old Antonio Luciano, who comes from a wealthy family in Brazil’s sugar cane and commodities business, had already purchased two properties from Piquet over the phone. Now he is in search of a larger home with a better view. Like most rich Brazilians, Luciano is ready to pay cash for that perfect place.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Brazilians snap up South Florida real estate

Professors' challenge to Florida Cuba travel law

Lehigh Acres News Star/

TALLAHASSEE - The U.S. Supreme Court could decide this week whether to hear a challenge to a 2006 Florida law that blocks funding for university professors to travel to Cuba or other countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism.

The Florida International University faculty senate and individual professors challenged the law, contending that it improperly infringes on the federal government's power to make decisions about foreign policy.

"As Congress and the president work to develop a response to current global events that harmonizes the nation's self-interest with the democratic ideals it promotes, the treatment of terrorism and the individuals and nations sponsoring it is at the core of America's foreign policy,'' attorneys for the professors wrote in a brief. "… That the Florida Legislature passed the travel act (state law) to take a harder line against Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria than the president or Congress have taken impermissibly blunts the consequences of the president's discretionary authority to manage relations with the listed states."

But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010 upheld the law. In a brief to the Supreme Court, state attorneys wrote that professors are "not constitutionally entitled to demand state support for their academic travel simply because federal law permits such travel."

"Indeed, a state's decision to support academic travel to one country rather than another, and to take into consideration the safety of its faculty and students in making such decisions, does not present an important federal question that should be settled by this court,'' the brief said.

Supreme Court justices are scheduled Thursday to consider whether to hear the case and will make an announcement later. The court receives thousands of petitions a year for it to take cases, but agrees to hear only a fraction. If the court agrees to hear the Florida case, it would start a months-long process that would involve arguments and an ultimate ruling on the professors' challenge.

Professors' challenge to Florida Cuba travel law

Huyen a Cuba Estafadores del Medicare

By gusanomarielito

Huyen a Cuba Estafadores del Medicare

Autoridades temen que huya cubano acusado de fraude al Medicare

Leer en el  Nuevo Herald >>

Autoridades temen que huya cubano acusado de fraude al Medicare