All posts by Jaaber

PUGH RESPONSE!

Trial Court Administrator Kathy Pugh has, in a fashion, responded to our emailed requests from yesterday regarding the blocking of JAABLOG’s emails and JAABLOG hosting Night Court Live!

After we didn’t hear anything back for the bulk of today, the following email was sent to Jack Tuter, 17th Circuit PIO Meredith Bush, and to Pugh.

Email sent at 4:14 PM:

Good afternoon … can Court Administration arrange to have the Sun Sentinel, JAABLOG, or some other media outlet broadcast the emergency dockets for the duration of the closures?

Here’s the response from Pugh, who has joined Tuter and Bush on the JAABLOG blackout list:

And there you have it.

Apparently JAABLOG serves no legitimate purpose at all in the eyes of the 17th Circuit’s Judicial Administration …

NO 1ST AMENDMENT FOR YOU!

COOKIES!

If you have too much time on your hands, here’s a newspaper paywall go-around that works like a charm for news junkies.

Cookies are placed on your phone or computer when you read a free article on a newspaper website. That’s how they know to lock you out when you go back for another free read. Browsing in incognito or secret mode no longer works to get around the one-free-read paywall, as they can detect secret mode and block access to all content.

The answer is to delete cookies after the free read is used up, but to do it from a second newspaper reading-only browser so as not to inadvertently delete all your passwords and other information stored and saved for your go-to sites. It’s a pain to re-input all that stuff over and over again.

Google Canary is a great second browser to use for newspapers only, but any will do. Download it on your phone or computer, and go through the cookie cleaning process through the Clear History function as often as you like, pictured above. You can literally go back to the same newspaper seconds later for another free read after clearing the cookies, and it works for any newspaper except the Wall Street Journal and others like it that don’t allow any free reads at all.

And while we’re in time killing tip mode, try a little 5:00 PM concoction the scientists here at JAABLOG created some months back. It’s called The Medicine Ball. In a large pint glass, fill all the way with ice, add two parts vodka, one part 99 Bananas 99 proof banana schnapps, and fill with carbonated water. A splash of Drillaud Banana Liqueur is optional.

If you get the mixture just right, it tastes and kicks just like that ten year old bottle of prescription cough syrup your buddy liberated from the back of Grandma’s medicine cabinet way back in the crazy days …*

*Disclaimer The Medicine Ball does not ward off or cure Covid-19.

THURS. NIGHT COURT DOCKET

Tim Bailey is handling tonight’s episode of Night Court.

The docket is here.

It is unknown at this time why these dockets are not being posted on the 17th Circuit’s website, along with the daily posted First Appearances dockets.

We’ll ask Court Administrator Kathy Pugh when she gets back to us on questions regarding the blocking of emails to government officials’ accounts, and whether JAABLOG can host Night Court Live! in the absence of any other media outlet broadcast. We’re still waiting for the Supreme Court PIO to respond on the access to courts issue as well …

YOU MAKE THE CALL!

In light of Public Records laws and recent appellate action letting a lower court decision stand that precludes Donald Trump from banning people from his Twitter account, can a government official block a media outlet such as JAABLOG from emailing all judicial officers, and a Public Information Officer?

To help answer the question, the following was sent to Kathy Pugh, Court Administrator for Broward, earlier today:

YOU MAKE THE CALL!

COMING SOONFun With Unsubscribes!

ACCESS TO COURTS

UPDATEJAABLOG requests to Jack Tuter and 17th Circuit PIO Meredith Bush have been typically blocked by the powers that be in Court Administration. Apparently, there’s been no lifting on the standard information blackout to the dreaded blog during the pandemic. We’ve got the same request into the Supreme Court regarding the access to courts issue, and we’ll update when more information becomes available …

____________________________________________________________________

All the players who have been working double overtime, and frequently late into the night, to make Night Court and emergency dockets an up and running reality, deserve tons of credit. A Herculean effort, in fact, and greatly appreciated.

However, there’s one issue outstanding. With the courthouse closed, Night Court is a private affair, excluding not only the loved ones of the inmates, but attorneys, who only have case specific telephonic access, and other interested members of the public, including the press.

We asked earlier in the process if the hearings, which occur in the fully wired First Appearances courtroom that is already utilized to live broadcast bond court proceedings in the Sun Sentinel, were being streamed. The answer was unknown, which is why today we reached out to the Sentinel.

Here is the response:

Our authorization agreement with Broward only covers first appearance magistrate court twice daily and once on weekends.

Accordingly, questions remain:

  1. Is Night Court being broadcast to the public elsewhere?
  2. Is Night Court excluded from normal public access laws and rules?
  3. Can Jack Tuter arrange to have the Sun Sentinel or other easily accessible providers carry Night Court Live! for the sake of the community and for the duration of the shutdown?

Please add a comment if anything else comes to mind, or if further information is available. We’ll update with anything else we learn …

BILL GELIN FOR BOG 2021!

I got crushed!

Congratulations to Jay Kim, the winner.

All election results are below.

Turnout was higher than the last contested election, but with still close to 6000 abstains, this is definitely not the type of election one can win by simply blogging and sending out some emails, as I did. It takes pressing the flesh, which my opponent did, at least early on before the pandemic really got going.

Oh well. It’s nice to know Jay had to earn it this time, campaigning instead of going in unopposed, like the vast majority of his 51 colleagues on the BOG typically do. In the future, maybe he’ll simply professionally and politely respond to emails if myself or another constituent sends him one, and possibly avoid a challenge. Live and learn, as they say.

In any event, thank you to Dan Lewis from PoliticalStrategies.com and Craig Agranoff from PoliticalConsulting.com for the solids on the campaign emails, and to all of you that read here and voted. I am truly touched.

Lastly, I hereby announce my candidacy for BOG in 2021. Thank you in advance for your continued support. Together we can reform the Florida Bar!

Bill Gelin

STATEWIDE ELECTION RESULTS:

President:

*elected by majority

**runoff

JAIL VISITS OFFICIALLY SHUT DOWN

The following email was forwarded to PDO personnel this morning by Howard Finkelstein. BSO Legal confirmed, although an “absolute emergency” jail visit may still qualify. BSO also notes video visitation coupons are still readily available …

For remote video visitation on your phone, enable all recording and access to phone options to allow the Securus App to work, but this banner will pop up for attorneys:

CLERK’S RELIEF

We’re told non-essential Clerk’s employees were told at roughly 5:00 PM this evening to stay home, close to their phones, until April 15th …

WELL DONE!

UPDATE – Press Release sent to everyone but JAABLOG:

SAO STAFFING UPDATE

The following email was reportedly sent from a remote location by Monica Hofheinz earlier this afternoon throughout the SAO regarding ongoing staffing issues during the crisis. Attorneys are able to work from home with the assistance of staff, so support employees have a ton of concerns going forward, just like in the other stakeholders’ offices.

The email:

Weeks ahead

We know many of you are asking about the weeks ahead due to the Chief Judge Tuter extending his Administrative Order closing the courthouse to the public and jurors through April 17th (for now).

We are formulating an amended plan for our staff and will inform everyone through email, ReadyOp and the office hotline (954-831-6191) as soon as we can.

The administrative leave option is in place through this week. We are reviewing our options under the new Federal legislation regarding paid sick leave.

In addition we are staying in communication with the Governor’s directives which could change everything.