Jack Latvala

TALLAHASSEE – You have to forgive Florida's reform-minded lawmakers if they don't want to preclude all their current colleagues from cashing in as lobbyists. This week, the Senate amended its sweeping ethics reform bill (SB 2) to allow current...

Running off at the typewriter … Sadly, the FAMU band-hazing death that took place during last year's Florida Classic at the Florida Citrus Bowl is, tragically, turning into the biggest intercollegiate-sports scandal this state has ever seen. Band...

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate is poised to pass an election reform inspired by last year's criticized elections, but will likely do so without the votes of minority-party Democrats who object the fix doesn't completely solve all the problems....

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Legislature's much-ballyhooed marriage between campaign-finance and ethics reforms may be heading for a rocky patch. On Tuesday, the Senate moved away from the House on its campaign-finance bill (SB 1382) when the chamber's...

TALLAHASSEE – In warp-speed fashion, the Florida Senate’s budget committee unanimously passed a $74.3 billion spending plan Wednesday that gives teachers pay-raises, pumps millions of dollars into university construction, and is loaded down...

TALLAHASSEE – While advancing some grandiose ethics and elections reforms this year, Florida lawmakers also want to give themselves some wiggle-room under the last major shakeup to Tallahassee’s political culture – the ban on gifts...

A top senator said Thursday that he will introduce legislation to eliminate a nearly 30-year-old tax break for insurance companies and use the estimated $220 million in savings to roll back the annual car registration fees paid by the state's drivers. &#...

TALLAHASSEE — Normally, Republicans rule the roost when it comes to collecting campaign-coin in the Capitol. But an Orlando Sentinel analysis of the campaign-finance data reveals that the Florida Democratic Party, candidates for statewide office,...

TALLAHASSEE – Florida lawmakers are advancing a sweeping package of reforms of state economic-incentives that would require more rapid and detailed disclosure of the tax-breaks companies have received to fill jobs and closer scrutiny of their...

TALLAHASSEE – Fueled by cases of legislators cashing in on their public offices, Florida Senate Ethics Chairman Jack Latvala has pushed for months to expand an ethics reform bill to place tighter lobbying prohibitions on lawmakers when they leave...

TALLAHASSEE – A Senate panel advanced its own campaign-finance bill (SB 1382) Monday in an attempt to provide more transparency to fundraising and crack down on lawmakers' perceived abuses of political slush funds. The House and Senate are playing...

TALLAHASSEE — The Senate just unanimously passed major ethics reform as its first bill of the 2013 session. There was no debate, other than a closing statement by Ethics and Elections Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater. “This is solid...