The 20th Herald Hunt is over, an the winners are a team calling themselves "The Fiscal Cliff Hangers" from Davie.
The team of five people solved the brain-twisting Hunt at about 2:45 p.m. by piecing together their clues and finding a common theme, which led them to a phone number -- and still more clues. Come back to MiamiHerald.com later today to see the results.
What had ET readers buzzing this week?
1. Charges Filed Against Lindsay Lohan
California prosecutors have officially filed charges against Lindsay Lohan.
The charges, which include willfully resisting, obstructing, or delaying an officer in the course of their duties, supplying false information to a police officer and reckless driving, stem from the car accident Lohan was involved in last June when she crashed her Porsche into the back of a dump truck on the Pacific Coast Highway.
All three charges are misdemeanors, and no court date has been set at this time.
The accident in June occurred when she was on her way to the set of Liz & Dick. According to The Los Angeles Times, Santa Monica prosecutors had been weighing charges against Lohan for weeks after police said they found evidence she lied when she claimed she was not behind the wheel of her Porsche.
The charges come just hours after Lohan was arrested early Thursday morning after a brawl broke out at a New York City nightclub. Lohan was arrested for allegedly punching a female patron at Club Avenue, and is facing third degree assault charges from the incident.
2. Nancy O'Dell Launches New App
ET host Nancy O'Dell is combining her love of two things -- reporting and kids -- by launching a new storybook app on iTunes.
The highly interactive app features a holiday theme and uses the story and games to educate users. The voice of Arty the cameraman is provided by Bryson Foster, the Muscular Dystrophy Association's National Goodwill Ambassador, and a portion of the proceeds will go to the MDA.
Nancy says of her endeavor, "As the host of Entertainment Tonight, one of the things I love most about my job is how much I learn by meeting interesting people and going to so many different places. So, I thought, how fun it would be for little kids to do that too! Obviously, they can't travel the world in reality by themselves, but they can via an app."
Nancy discloses, "Every app is a magical story as Ashby and her FUNtastic crew go on their adventures. And what better first assignment for a little reporter to cover than Santa's Big Premiere on Christmas Eve. Little Ashby files her report on what the Holiday Spirit is all about!"
Check out the app, available just in time for the holidays, here.
3. Backstreet Boy AJ McLean Welcomes Baby Girl
Backstreet Boy AJ McLean and wife, makeup artist Rochelle Deanna Karidis, had their first child together on Tuesday, In Touch reports.
According to the news source, the couple welcomed a baby girl named Ava Jaymes.
"We are all doing well and are thrilled to welcome Ava to the world," said the singer, 34.
Ava was born weighing 7 lbs. and 7 oz., according to In Touch.
AJ and Rochelle made their pregnancy announcement just four months after their Beverly Hills wedding.
AJ announced the baby's gender and name via Twitter in July.
4. Angus T. Jones Apologizes For 'Men' Remarks
In a self-written statement obtained by ET, Two and a Half Men star Angus T.
Jones breaks his silence on controversial remarks made by the actor about the series in a video testimonial for Forerunner Christian Church.
In the note, Jones apologizes for harm he might have caused to his colleagues for labeling the popular CBS show as "filth" and in urging viewers not to watch. He writes:
I have been the subject of much discussion, speculation and commentary over the past 24 hours. While I cannot address everything that has been said or right every misstatement or misunderstanding, there is one thing I want to make clear.
Without qualification, I am grateful to and have the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people on 'Two and Half Men' with whom I have worked and over the past ten years who have become an extension of my family.
Chuck Lorre, Peter Roth and many others at Warner Bros. and CBS are responsible for what has been one of the most significant experiences in my life to date. I thank them for the opportunity they have given and continue to give me and the help and guidance I have and expect to continue to receive from them.
I also want all of the crew and cast on our show to know how much I personally care for them and appreciate their support, guidance and love over the years. I grew up around them and know that the time they spent with me was in many instances more than with their own families. I learned life lessons from so many of them and will never forget how much positive impact they have had on my life.
I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed. I never intended that.
The video in question shows Jones opening up about his conversations with God and how his new-found religious beliefs led him to stop doing drugs and leading a selfish life.
5. Bobbi Kristina in Crash That Sent Car Off the Road
Bobbi Kristina Brown was cited by police after being involved in a car accident Wednesday in which the vehicle left the road and traveled down an embankment.
Police in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta confirmed to ET that a passerby called 911 just before noon to report that the black Chevrolet Camaro had veered off the road and traveled through a wooded area striking trees before eventually coming to a stop.
"The investigation revealed the driver lost control and the vehicle left Beaver Creek Road on the east side and traveled down an embankment," a police statement said. Damage to the vehicle was described in the statement as "moderate."
Upon the initial arrival, officers say they found Bobbi Kristina standing beside the vehicle and she was uninjured. "Our officer completed an official accident report and issued a traffic citation to Ms. Brown for the offense of failure to maintain lane," the police statement said.
Bobbi Kristina appeared to address the accident Wednesday on Twitter.
"My#PersonalGuardianAngel thankumommiss&loveumre u'lleverkno. NotAScratch&ok Wow,PraiseGod. @nickdgordon #SeriousChangeswithinME," she wrote.
She also tweeted: "#LETMELIVE without YOUppl crucifying me?! OH, yes now I remember .. YOUppl did the SAME DAMN THING2 JESUS.& he overcame you ALL. #NOWWATCH."
Jennifer L. Gonzeles
ANGUISH: Maria Matias, mother or murdered boxing great Hector (Macho) Camacho, is carried away after becoming overwhelmed with grief at her son's burial in The Bronx today.
She just couldn’t accept it was the final round.
The wailing mom of slain boxing champ Hector (Macho) Camacho had to be dragged kicking and screaming from her son’s grave in The Bronx this morning after she refused to leave him when the service ended.
The inconsolable mom, Maria Matias, flailed her arms and fought back mourners who grabbed her as she vainly tried to return to her son’s petal strewn casket at St. Raymond’s Cemetery shortly before noon.
Jennifer L. Gonzeles
Hector "Machito" Camacho, son of boxing legend Hector "Macho Camacho" bends at the foot of his father's grave with his uncle Ponchito to the left
“My star. My star,” she screamed in Spanish, before she collapsed and was carried away, her arms outstretched in a prone position, to a waiting stretch limo.
But moments later Camacho’s brother, Ponchito, who was in the limo with his mother, yelled “Cardiac!”
An FDNY ambulance, which was on the scene, gave the unconscious woman oxygen and took her away in an ambulance.
She was taken to Jacobi Hospital, and listed in stable condition after suffering a panic attack, FDNY sources said,
It was a family affair of raw emotional outbursts throughout the day as the final bell tolled for the famous pugilist.
Camacho’s son, Christian, also lost it in front of hundreds of mourners and fans who braved the chill air to attend the brief grave side service.
“How could you do this to me? I’m his son. You’re the devil,” he yelled.
Even before the Spanish Harlem legend’s coffin was interred a few family members quietly argued and decided not to confront a woman there and question her about $125,000 missing from a bank.
Camacho, 50, was fatally shot while sitting in his car in Bayamon Puerto Rico on Nov. 20.
This morning a funeral mass was held at St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic Church in East Harlem.
Some 300 mourners attended that service, while hundreds of others stood behind police barricades for a final glimpse of the homegrown hero’s Puerto Rico flag-draped casket.
Even then emotions ran high. Camacho’s grieving sister complained of chest pains and was taken by ambulance to Mount Sinai Hospital. His son, Comachito, walked into the church, looked at his father’s closed casket but was too over wrought and left before mass.
Camacho’s past romantic entangles took another surprise left hook when a third woman came forward claiming she was his long time lover.
Shelly Salemassi, 50, said she flew in from Detroit to say farewell to the man she had spent Christmas with last year and had known for 16 years.
“Macho I owned his heart,” she said. “I’m sure eventually we would have wound up together.”
The recently widowed mother said she and Camacho had a long distance relationship, but that the pair had spent time together just a few months ago.
She dissed the two girlfriends back in Puerto Rico who began swinging at each other at his wake. Salemassi said “He would have been very embarrassed by it.”
REUTERS
FINAL FAREWELL: Maria Matias, mother of former boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho ,touches her son's casket.
This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.
As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.
It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.
The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”
South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.
“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”
His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.
For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.
Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.
Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.
Tammy Goss is sitting on a park bench in a small patch of green wedged between Dixie Highway and the FEC railroad tracks. Staring down from the southeast wall of the corner community center is a huge blue-toned mural of a man’s face, his fingers curled around an electric bass guitar. She knows his name.
“Jaco Pastorius, I think,” said Goss, 45.
But that’s all she really knows about John Francis Pastorius III.
“I don’t remember him," admitted Goss, as she drags on a cigarette. “I guess he was before my time or something. So I’m not really sure what he did."
Johnny Boston says he hangs out in the park nearly everyday. He’s seen Pastorius’ name on a sign.
"And that’s who that dude is?" asks Boston, 57. “I didn’t know he was a musician."
Pastorius’ lightning-fast fingering and use of harmonics elevated the electric bass guitar from rhythm section pulse to a virtuoso’s instrument. He toured with jazz fusion band Weather Report and Joni Mitchell and won two Grammy nominations for his own debut album in 1977.
Unfamiliar to many but beloved by a solid group of devotees spanning generations and musical genres, Pastorius will have a tribute concert from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday marking the 25th year since his death. The concert, “A Tribute to Jaco,” will take place at Jaco Pastorius Park, 4000 N. Dixie Hwy. in Oakland Park.
The namesake park is a good start but much more is deserved, said Oakland Park resident Robert Rutherford, who in 2005 started a petition drive to name the seven-acre park near the railroad tracks after his musical hero.
“I think it could be a catalyst to more things in the future," said Rutherford, who is now throwing all his energy behind another grass-roots effort: a petition drive for a Jaco Pastorius commemorative postage stamp.
The spirit of Pastorius lives through devotees such as the four members of the Miami progressive metal band Neolythyc. All are 17 years old, born nearly a decade after Pastorius’ death. The band is among performers scheduled for Saturday’s concert.
Neolythyc bass player Jerry Caceres refers to Pastorius as "one of the old homies from down the block."
"He’s my dawg!” said Caceres, who sports a long mane of Jaco-ish hair. “He took a lot of trumpet leads, like in the be-bop days, and played it on the bass. And that’s amazing. To have that kind of speed."
In the late ’60’s, at just about the same age as the kids in Neolythyc, Pastorius was playing every gig he could get in South Florida, and earning the chops that would make him the most influential jazz fusion bass player of his time. Over a relatively short recording career, he managed to leave behind a huge body of work. But the guys in Neolythyc are unanimous when asked about their favorite Pastorius composition, Portrait of Tracy, recorded in 1976.
In Pastorius’ musical prime, the bi-polar disorder that plagued him all his life began to quell his incandescent talent. The illness often revealed itself in irrational behavior that left his fellow musicians baffled.
After struggling for years with the illness, the trail-blazing musician who performed with jazz fusion giants Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock ended up homeless on the streets of Fort Lauderdale.
In September 1987, after trying to force his way into a Wilton Manors nightclub, Pastorius was beaten by the bouncer on duty. He died nine days later, Sept. 21, at age 35.
But Rutherford said Pastorius was more magic than tragic. And he hears that in the music.
"I can picture flocks of ibis flying in the morning or in the evening back to roost,” Rutherford said. “You know, it’s going to be different for everyone how they interpret these songs. But the place and his music are so intertwined, they’re inseparable."
NEW YORK (AP) — A new survey finds that digital video recorders are now in more than half of all U.S. homes that subscribe to cable or satellite TV services.
Leichtman Research Group‘s survey of 1,300 households found that 52 percent of the ones that have pay-TV service also have a DVR. That translates to about 45 percent of all households and is up from 13.5 percent of all households surveyed five years ago by another firm, Nielsen.
The first DVRs came out in 1999, from TiVo Inc. and ReplayTV. Later, they were built into cable set-top boxes. The latest trend is “whole-home” DVRs that can distribute recorded shows to several sets.
Even with the spread of DVRs, live TV rules. Nielsen found last year that DVRs accounted for 8 percent of TV watching.
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Rick Baker is being honored with a well-deserved Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, and the multiple Oscar-winning special makeup effects artist talks to ETonline about his first big break, how An American Werewolf in London would look onscreen today, the inspirations for his wild Men in Black 3 creatures and more.
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"I was part of the first generation of kids that grew up in front of the TV -- I was really attracted to the horror films that they'd show on Friday or Saturday nights," the 61-year-old Baker tells us. "I was so fascinated by those monsters. … I just thought, 'That's what I want to do when I grow up.' I was like 10 years old, and I just set my mind to it. And I started teaching myself how to do it. There weren't schools then, and there was very little information then, but I figured it out."
The surprisingly humble California native has won seven Best Achievement in Makeup Oscars (for such films as American Werewolf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Ed Wood and Men in Black) out of a total of 12 nominations, and will also be entered in the Guinness World Records Book for most Oscar wins and noms in that category. In fact, the category was created by the Motion Picture Academy in honor of Baker's extraordinary work on 1981's American Werewolf.
One of Baker's first big breaks came from American Werewolf director John Landis, who hired the talented young artist to create a monster for his low-budget 1973 horror movie Schlock after well-known Planet of the Apes make-up artist John Chambers turned him down. Legendary Halloween mask maker Don Post also turned Landis down, but recommended Baker, who would regularly buy latex and polyurethane foam from Don Post Studios to fabricate homemade creations.
"[Landis] wanted basically what he kept saying was a crappy gorilla suit," says Baker with a laugh. "John called me up out of the blue, drove out to Covina, and went into my little bedroom workshop -- I grew up in a very lower-middle class, little teeny bedroom where I made all my stuff -- it was full of monsters, and he basically flipped out at the stuff that I had. He said, 'I've seen the stuff that the professional guys are doing, and your stuff is as good as them, and you're like, how old are you?' So I did John's first movie."
Pics: Our 10 Favorite Fright Flicks
Ten years later Landis had become a name director with such movies as Animal House and The Blues Brothers, and secured the financing for American Werewolf. Baker recalls, "[Landis] said, 'I want to do a transformation unlike what's been done before. It just doesn't make sense to me that when your body was going to transform like that, that you would sit in a chair like [original Wolf Man] Lon Chaney, Jr. and be perfectly still until he transformed.' He goes, 'I want to show the pain, I want to show what this body is going through, what's happening, and it's going to be my next movie and I want you to do it and you've got to figure out a way to do it.' It's like, okay! … And it's what really changed things."
Baker became a pioneer in his field, but has of course had to adapt with the changing technological times. "If American Werewolf was made in this day and age it would all be CGI," he says with a hint of resignation. "It's definitely taken away the animatronic part of my job, even though we did make some animatronic stuff in Men in Black. … I embrace the technology, but what I don't like about it is I think it's just made for sloppy filmmaking. The fix-it-in-post attitude is so prevalent in moviemaking now. It makes people not have to think about things. In American Werewolf we thought about everything in advance, we planned it out, we made storyboards, so I knew what to make."
Perhaps Baker's biggest crowning achievement, even more than winning multiple Academy Awards, was the first time he saw himself in the magazine that first got him interested in the craft behind the camera as a young boy: Famous Monsters of Filmland. "I really felt like I made it, you know?" says the silver-ponytailed artist with a child-like smile. "I still think that's the most excited I've ever been about any article that's been written on me, because it was my magazine, and it was the one that I was so fond of."
Related: John Landis Talks 'Three Amigos' and More
Baker's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located right next to friend and Oscar-winning Visual Effects icon Dennis Murin's star, which he finds "really exciting. … [Dennis, visual effects colleague Ken Ralston and I] were all like these teenage kids that found each other with similar interests and hoped that someday we could work on a movie, and we managed to all work on some pretty amazing movies, you know? … I've had so many surreal experiences in my lifetime pursuing my hobby."
For Men in Black 3, director Barry Sonnenfeld pretty much gave Baker free reign to create a rogue's gallery of aliens and creatures to populate both the foreground and background action. Designing a total of 127 creations gave the artist an opportunity to pay homage to the favorite B-movie baddies of his youth.
"You could basically name any film that was done from 1950 to 1970 or beyond that was a science fiction film and we paid some kind of homage to it," he says, "And a lot of them were films that people wouldn't even know unless they read Famous Monsters, or grew up in front of the same movies on TV as I did: Invasion of the Saucer Men, This Island Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Invaders from Mars, Outer Limits, you name it."
Related: Watch 'Men in Black 3' in a Whole New Way
So what’s next for Rick Baker? He designed Angelina Jolie's makeup for the upcoming Malificent, and he's been doing a lot of painting: "I've really been having fun; I'm kind of at the point in my career where I only want to work when it's something I really want to do," he says. "I've painted a lot of things in my life. … I decided I really should paint all the classic monsters that inspired me. So I did 13 paintings for [an upcoming] show. I'm really excited about them. And I'm really looking forward to see people's response."
Baker's Classic Monsters show (a group effort alongside close to 30 artists, including Rob Zombie) debuts this weekend through the end of December at Halloween Town in Burbank, CA, while his latest onscreen creations can be seen on the Men in Black 3 Blu-ray, out now.
REUTERS
President Obama gestures next to Michael Araten, right, President of Rodon, and Joel Glickman, Vice Chairman, at the Rodon Group, a manufacturer of toys in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Friday.
HATFIELD, Pa. — President Obama argued Friday that allowing taxes to rise for the middle class would amount to a "lump of coal" for Christmas," while Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared that negotiations to surmount a looming fiscal cliff are going "almost nowhere."
Obama took his case to an audience in a Philadelphia suburb, saying that this move would present a "Scrooge Christmas" for millions of wage-earners. Speaking at a toy factory, the president said Republicans should extend existing Bush-era tax rates for households earning $250,000 or less, while allowing increases to kick in for the wealthy.
On Capitol Hill, Boehner argued that Obama's latest offer — to raise revenue by $1.6 trillion over the next decade — would be a "crippling blow" to an economy that is still struggling to find its footing. The Ohio Republican told reporters he would continue working with Obama to avoid hundreds of billions in tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect beginning in January if Washington doesn't act to stop it, but gave a gloomy assessment of the talks so far.
"There's a stalemate. Let's not kid ourselves," Boehner said. "Right now, we're almost nowhere."
Obama's speech came a day after his administration proposed $1.6 trillion in new taxes over 10 years, new spending for the unemployed and struggling homeowners and savings of about $400 billion in entitlement programs like Medicare. The proposal amounts to requests that were already d in Obama's Fiscal 2013 budget plan. Republicans rejected the offer as unreasonable.
Obama said he believed both parties "can and will work together" to reach an agreement to get its long-term deficit under control "in a way that's balanced and is fair."
"In Washington, nothing's easy so there is going to be some prolonged negotiations and all of us are going to have to get out of our comfort zones to make that happen," he said. "I'm willing to do that. I' hopeful that enough members of Congress in both parties are willing to do that as well."
White House officials hoped Friday's trip would build momentum for the president's case, even as Republicans describe the outing as an irritant and an obstacle to fruitful talks. The road trip was part of a dual White House strategy of having the president's team meet with members of Congress while Obama travels the country to pressure Congress to act.
Republicans have said they are open to new tax revenue but not higher rates.
Obama spoke at the Rodon Group manufacturing facility, showcasing the company as an example of a business that depends on middle-class consumers during the holiday season. The company manufactures parts for K'NEX Brands, a construction toy company whose products include Tinkertoy, K'NEX Building Sets and Angry Birds Building Sets.
The president joked that he's keeping his own "naughty and nice list" for members of Congress — and only some would get a K'NEX set for Christmas.
Administration officials said the offer, presented to Hill Republicans by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, constituted much of what Obama has previously suggested in budget proposals.
One new feature in the Geithner plan is a call for increasing the nation's debt limit without the need for congressional approval. Under last year's debt ceiling deal, Obama simply had to notify Congress that he was raising the debt ceiling, a move that could be blocked only if both houses of Congress approved resolutions of disapproval that Obama could veto. The administration wants a permanent extension of the debt ceiling with a similar legislative arrangement and with no offsetting spending cuts, as demanded by Republicans.
"Unfortunately, many Democrats continue to rule out sensible spending cuts that must be part of any significant agreement that will reduce our deficit," Boehner said after meeting with Geithner Thursday.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday that the proposal for $1.6 trillion in tax revenue was presented in context of a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction throughout the campaign.
"This is the way that we can ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more to deal with our deficit challenges," Earnest said aboard Air Force One as Obama flew to Pennsylvania.
"This was what the president has campaigned on for a long time and that was what president pushed for in context of the discussions with House Republicans," Earnest said.
Earnest said the proposal laid out by Geithner should not come as a surprise to anyone. Referring to comments by House Republican staffers who expressed surprise at Geithner's proposal, Earnest said, "This morning I was surprised they were surprised."
Helm Bank USA, based in Miami, signed a consent order with federal and state banking regulators Oct. 17, according to information on October enforcement actions released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday.
Helm Bank must deveop a Bank Secrecy Act compliance plan, implement internal controls and a training program, revise its strategic plan and develop a plan for managing interest rate risk, among other requirements, according to the 19-page consent order.
Banking regulators also modified Miami-based Great Eastern Bank of Florida’s consent order on Oct. 25. The consent order was originally issued in July. The modification includes a requirement that the bank submit a written capital plan to boost its capital and a plan to reduce its classified assets. It must also revise its strategic plan and its plan to improve earnings, and submit a Bank Secrecy Act compliance plan, among other requirements outlined in the 19-page modification.
INA PAIVA CORDLE
TALLAHASSEE --
Bad news and controversy are routine in the vast state government under Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s control. But don’t look for clues in Project Sunburst, Scott’s program of email transparency.
That’s because Scott doesn’t use email as a primary form of communication, and neither does his top aide, chief of staff Adam Hollingsworth.
Workers at state agencies also are wary of using email to alert Scott’s inner circle (and consequently the media) to impending trouble.
Anyone can access the email of Scott and his top aides at www.flgov.com/sunburst . But if Sunburst was designed to end secrecy in state government, it hasn’t.
“It’s been a disappointment to say the least,” said Barbara Petersen of the First Amendment Foundation, who had high hopes because the search for email from Scott’s office had been costly and time-consuming.
“The manipulation of content and lack of substantive communications — there’s simply not much there of any real value to the public,” Petersen said.
Hollingsworth, who puts a premium on accessibility, said his days are filled with meetings and he has no time to access email. He said Sunburst is a catalyst for better communication in Scott’s office.
“We actually enjoy getting together,” he said. “That sort of interpersonal communication is probably more productive and purposeful than an email system.”
The result is that Sunburst, promoted by Scott as an “open and transparent window into how state government works,” is in reality a vessel for the mundane work of government: meeting notices, routine reports, personnel moves and news releases.
Sunburst is so bland that partisan Democrats, ever eager to find negative material about Scott, pay little attention to it.
“I haven’t had the time, the inclination or the interest,” said Mark Hollis, spokesman for Democrats in the state House.
Hollingsworth and Scott’s communications director, Melissa Sellers, say they do not use private email accounts for official business.
Another of Sunburst’s unfulfilled promises: Scott has not expanded the system to include other agencies under his control as he promised to do “in the coming months” when he launched the system May 3.
Scott himself often poses a question that’s ripe for Sunburst: “Is each program achieving what it is intended to?”
What Sunburst does best is serve as a tip sheet for reporters burrowing deep into the bureaucracy and as an online town square where people air their grievances with Scott on everything from property insurance premiums to President Barack Obama’s policies.
“Overall, I’d rather have it than not have it,” said David Royse, editor of the News Service of Florida.
The brainchild of former Scott chief of staff Steve MacNamara, Sunburst was launched with the promise of unprecedented access to email of Scott and his top aides.
Integrity Florida, a nonpartisan watchdog group, tracks Sunburst daily and finds irregular compliance with Scott’s stated goal of making most messages available within 24 hours.
“That’s not happening,” said Dan Krassner of Integrity Florida.
Integrity Florida also found that some staffers did not comply with Scott’s policy to post emails within seven days of receipt.
Governor’s staff members are responsible for moving their mail to the Sunburst folder. Some email is necessarily delayed to allow time to redact information that is confidential under state law.
As of 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, emails sent to Scott and Hollingsworth were posted within 24 hours, the group said.
But the group found that it had been nine days since any email to Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Finkbeiner was online; 10 days for Sellers; and 14 days for Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll’s chief of staff, John Konkus.
“Sunburst has been just a small burst of sunlight through the big clouds of government secrecy,” Krassner said. “We’d like to see the governor’s office deliver on the original promise of Sunburst and meet the governor’s expectations of 24-hour disclosure.”
Hollingsworth said every employee must obey the Sunburst policy and that every Friday all Sunburst accounts are reviewed to be sure people are complying.
Hollingsworth, who arrived two months after Sunburst, quickly fixed the system’s most embarrassing failure: the posting of pro-Scott emails and the absence of those critical of him. All are now accessible.
Asked if Scott’s people are reluctant to use email to avoid Sunburst’s public glare, Hollingsworth said: “I’m going to leave that for you and others to characterize.”
Conta ct Steve Bousquet at bousquet@tampabay.com or (850) 224-7263.
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