Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Steve Bousquet is the Tampa Bay Times' Tallahassee bureau chief. He joined the Times in 2001 after 17 years at the Miami Herald, where he held a variety of positions including Tallahassee bureau chief, and he previously was a reporter at TV stations in Miami and Providence, R.I. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Rhode Island and a master's in history from Florida State University.
Bousquet was a contributor to two editions of The Almanac of Florida Politics and to The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage, an account of the 2000 presidential recount in Florida.
Phone: (850) 224-7263
Email: sbousquet@tampabay.com
Twitter: @SteveBousquet
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Democrats, stung by low turnout, consider shifting Florida's election schedule
11/27/14 State RoundupTALLAHASSEE — After yet another defeat blamed on low voter turnout, some Florida Democrats want to change the rules and elect the governor in the same year voters pick the president — when turnout is always much higher.
In the aftermath of Charlie Crist's narrow loss to Gov. Rick Scott, strategists are plotting how to put an initiative on the 2016 ballot that would shift statewide races back to presidential years, as they were in Florida until 1964....
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DEP chief resigns at critical time for Florida environment
11/26/14 State RoundupTALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott's top environmental adviser, Herschel Vinyard Jr., resigned Wednesday, ending a four-year run of controversy over protecting Florida's fragile water and land resources.
Vinyard leaves the Department of Environmental Protection at a critical juncture: The agency will guide Scott and the Legislature through implementing Amendment 1, which had overwhelming support from voters and requires a $20 billion investment to protect water and land over the next 20 years....
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Vinyard retires at DEP; Gov. Scott names WIlson interim secretary
11/26/14 BlogAfter a four-year tenure punctuated by considerable controversy, Herschel Vinyard announced his retirement Wednesday as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Gov. Rick Scott issued a statement praising Vinyard's record and announced that his interim replacement will be Cliff Wilson, deputy secretary for regulatory programs at DEP.
"Secretary Vinyard was instrumental in helping us protect Florida's environment for future generations," Scott said. "Cliff Wilson has helped lead DEP's efforts to protect Florida's natural treasures. With his knowledge and experience, Wilson will ensure that the department continues to support Florida's environment."...
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Gov. Scott reboots press shop, hires new Cabinet affairs aide
11/25/14 BlogGov. Rick Scott on Tuesday announced Monica Russell as his new director of Cabinet affairs and made more changes to his communications shop in advance of his second term in January.
Russell, 31, is a University of Florida graduate who was communications director at the state Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) before leaving to work as surrogates director for the Scott re-election campaign....
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Scott signs death warrant for his 21st execution as governor
11/24/14 BlogGov. Rick Scott on Monday signed the death warrant for Johnny Shane Kormondy, who killed a Pensacola banker and repeatedly raped his wife as the couple returned home from her 20th high school reunion in 1993. Kormondy is set to die on Jan. 15, 2015.
In a summary of the case, the governor's office said that Kormondy shot Gary McAdams in the back of the head, killing him, and was the leader of the attack on the McAdamses, having recruited accomplices, provided transportation and cased the neighborhood prior to the crime. Kormondy also threatened to kill witnesses who testified at his trial -- including Cecilia McAdams -- if he were released from prison....
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Bousquet: Florida's chief justice: Civil court isn't just for the rich
11/24/14LegislatureJorge Labarga added another first to his resume Monday.
He's the first member of his family to attend law school. He's the first Cuban-American chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
Labarga's latest first: He signed an order creating the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice to address a "crisis" in Florida: Working families and poor people who need legal help often can't get it because they can't afford it....
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Embattled Florida prisons chief announces he is stepping down
11/24/14 State RoundupTALLAHASSEE — Michael Crews, the embattled secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, on Monday announced he would step down, following months of scrutiny involving abusive corrections officers, suspicious inmate deaths and a poor record of inmate healthcare delivered by private contractors.
Crews' exit had been rumored for weeks. It comes amid allegations of widespread agency corruption and the failure of Crews' top law enforcement officer, Inspector General Jeffery Beasley, to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing in the prison system....
![Mike Crews, whose resignation has been the subject of rumors for months, is the first agency head to step down since Gov. Rick Scott's re-election Nov. 4. [AP photo]](https://web.archive.org/web/20141202040459im_/http://www.tampabay.com/resources/images/dti/2014/11/13494219_14275120.jpg)
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FSU president John Thrasher wins praise for response to campus shooting
11/21/14 State RoundupTALLAHASSEE — In the same room where students once jeered his claim to the presidency of Florida State University, John Thrasher won praise Friday for providing reassurance in the aftermath of Thursday's campus library shooting.
Thrasher attended his first meeting with his new bosses, the FSU trustees who hired him. Weeks ago, they were criticized by students and faculty members for hiring a veteran legislator, former lobbyist and leader of conservative causes at odds with liberal academia....
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FSU trustees praise Thrasher's response to campus shooting
11/21/14 BlogIn the same room where he was jeered and heckled by Florida State students as a candidate for university president, John Thrasher drew widespread praise Friday for being a reassuring presence in the aftermath of Thursday's shooting at the campus library.
Only 10 days on the job, Thrasher attended his first meeting of FSU's board of trustees Friday, a day after troubled gunman Myron May shot and wounded three students, one critically, before being shot and killed by university police. Thrasher has met numerous times with FSU students, attended a candlelight vigil and personally reopened Robert Manning Strozier Library Friday morning as 100 students waited to get inside to study for pre-holiday exams....
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Rep. Matt Gaetz remembers gunman May as 'caring individual'
11/20/14 BlogState Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, knew Myron May, the man identified by police as the gunman in the FSU shootings, from their days working together in student government at Florida State.
May was a member of the Student Senate and Gaetz was president of the Insight political party on campus. The Insight party was focused on community outreach programs, and May got involved in the party’s community service committee....
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FSU President John Thrasher blocked NRA guns on campus bill in 2011
11/20/14 BlogFlorida State University President John Thrasher, who started the job only earlier this month, was in New York at the time of the shootings and immediately returned to Tallahassee.
As a state senator three years ago, Thrasher was instrumental in blocking legislation that would have allowed guns on campus in some cases. He called it "beyond personal." Here is an excerpt from the March 9, 2011, story from the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau:...
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FSU president John Thrasher played key role in 2011 defeat of NRA guns-on-campus bill
11/20/14 State RoundupTALLAHASSEE — Florida State University President John Thrasher, who started the job only earlier this month, was in New York at the time of the shootings and immediately returned to Tallahassee.
As a state senator three years ago, Thrasher was instrumental in blocking legislation that would have allowed guns on campus in some cases. He called it "beyond personal." Here is the March 9, 2011, story from the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau:...
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Two inmates, one deaf, the other mentally ill, seek mercy from Florida parole commission
11/19/14 State RoundupTALLAHASSEE — Two Florida inmates — one a deaf man from Tampa and the other a mentally ill man who is the focus of a searing documentary film — sought mercy from the state Wednesday. Both got a flicker of hope that they might one day see freedom.
Mark DeFriest, 54, who grew up in rural Gadsden County, has been in prison since 1979 for stealing his father's tools. He became a serial escape artist, gained the nickname "Houdini of Florida" and is the subject of a film, The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest. He has spent 35 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, and is due for release in 2085, when he would be 125....
