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seafan's Journal
Here is a tale of two people in Florida.
A Florida businessman: A Mortgage Tornado Warning, Unheeded  Gary Bogdon for The New York Times Caption: After his own experience dealing with a mortgage mess, Nye Lavalle set out to learn all he could about the mortgage industry, traveling nationwide to dig into records. In 2003, he compiled a dossier of practices at Fannie Mae. In hindsight, the problems he found look like a blueprint of today's foreclosure crisis. By GRETCHEN MORGENSON Published: February 4, 2012 ..... But after losing a family home to foreclosure, under what he thought were fishy circumstances, Mr. (Nye) Lavalle, founder of a consulting firm called the Sports Marketing Group, began a new life as a mortgage sleuth. In 2003, when home prices were flying high, he compiled a dossier of improprieties on one of the giants of the business, Fannie Mae. In hindsight, what he found looks like a blueprint of today’s foreclosure crisis. Even then, Mr. Lavalle discovered, some loan-servicing companies that worked for Fannie Mae routinely filed false foreclosure documents, not unlike the fraudulent paperwork that has since made “robo-signing” a household term. Even then, he found, the nation’s electronic mortgage registry was playing fast and loose with the law — something that courts have belatedly recognized, too. You might wonder why Mr. Lavalle didn’t speak up. But he did. For two years, he corresponded with Fannie executives and lawyers. Fannie later hired a Washington law firm to investigate his claims. In May 2006, that firm, using some of Mr. Lavalle’s research, issued a confidential, 147-page report corroborating many of his findings. And there, apparently, is where it ended. There is little evidence that Fannie Mae’s management or board ever took serious action. Known internally as O.C.J. Case No. 5595, in reference to the company’s Office of Corporate Justice, this 2006 report suggests just how deep, and how far back, our mortgage and foreclosure problems really go. ..... And then there's Florida's shiny new tea party-backed Attorney General Pam Bondi. (Formerly a FOX News legal commentator.)  Pam Bondi (AP photo/Steve Cannon) Instead of using everything in her legal arsenal to go after the criminals who improperly evicted people from their homes, as the attorneys general in the other four of the five hardest-hit states in foreclosure (Nevada, California, Michigan, Arizona) are doing, Ms. Bondi is best known for forcing out two of the most successful fraud investigators from her own office last May. Orlando Sentinel, August 8, 2011: ..... In May, Bondi's office quietly dismissed two foreclosure-fraud attorneys, Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson, who had won national attention (and a $2 million settlement) for exposing lending fraud. But in July, the two women went public, saying their firing was political and releasing their yearly evaluations, which were all glowing. To make matters worse, another attorney, Joe Jacquot, a holdover from former Attorney General Bill McCollum's term, had taken a job at Lender Processing Services. The company was under investigation and had also contributed $500 to Bondi and more than $40,000 to other candidates and the state's two political parties. Critics said Bondi was letting the banks slide by and the women were forced out for their aggressiveness. Bondi countered that her subordinates found "numerous problems" with the attorneys' work, but there were no documents to back that up. Ultimately, she asked Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, a Republican, to investigate. ..... People were outraged. And they started to take notice of what Bondi was doing. Critics: Bondi lax in pursuing big mortgage lenders amid continuing foreclosure crisis, December 18, 2011 On foreclosure fraud, Bondi comes up short, December 20, 2011 And while the 'investigation' into the attorney firings by Bondi dragged on for months, headed up by Bondi's colleague Jeff Atwater... Finally, in December, Atwater's inspector general's report not surprisingly 'cleared' Bondi of wrongdoing in the ousting of these two investigators who had successfully snagged a $2 Million settlement for exposing fraudulent lending. Bondi claims that this report should end any remaining questions about why she fired these two highly competent attorneys who both had stellar job reviews in their records. January 6, 2012, from Tampa Bay Online: “I think it clearly shows in no way it was politically motivated,” Bondi said on Friday. Bondi said that she had gone over the report numerous times on Friday and said that even she was “taken aback by the utter lack of professionalism and performance by these two staff attorneys.” “Sloppy work will not be tolerated in this office,” she said. What's very interesting is that both of these women, Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson, had received national attention for their tough investigation into law firms that were handling foreclosures for banks. Significantly, these law firms had contributed money to Bondi's election campaign. And one of Bondi's former advisers left the AG's office to go to work for one of the companies under investigation. But Ms. Bondi says there shouldn't be any more questions about all of this, because her Republican colleague Jeff Atwater's inspector general put his stamp of approval on these attorney firings by Bondi. Right. The firings set off a firestorm against Bondi because she also had opposed a nationwide settlement with banks that would have proposed cutting the principal owed by homeowners. Orlando Sentinel, December 18, 2011: Meanwhile, Orlando-area members of a faith-based nonprofit group called Focus complain that they have come away from meetings on foreclosure-settlement issues with Bondi representatives in recent months disappointed with what they describe as a seeming lack of interest in foreclosure fraud. "We wanted to convey the idea that we want her to put pressure on the banks to be positive and forthright with their clients," said Jerry Pena, a community organizer with the Orlando group. "… Her stance was that she didn't feel the banks were as liable as the media portrayed them to be, and people shouldn't have gone ahead and signed the mortgage paperwork, and that they knew what they were getting into." Sure doesn't sound as if Ms. Bondi is interested in looking out for Floridians who were fraudulently forced out of their homes, does it? Bondi has dragged her feet further: Florida's once-heralded foreclosure mill investigations have fizzled as the attorney general's office has failed to find the right strategy to continue its pursuit and three law firms call for the cases to be dismissed. This week, an attempt to have the Florida Supreme Court weigh in on whether the state has the authority to subpoena the Law Offices of David J. Stern was denied by the 4th District Court of Appeal. ..... In December, after losing an appeal in the 4th District Court of Appeal to subpoena Stern, Bondi asked the court to certify its decision as one of "great public importance" so she could appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. But some foreclosure defense attorneys believe the move was a hollow gesture to appease critics. Instead of looking to the Supreme Court, Bondi's office could have issued subpoenas under a different statute, possibly criminal investigative subpoenas, Ice said. "But the attorney general's office hasn't availed itself of that opportunity, which leads me to believe the certification request was a mere pretense for political purposes," he said. So, the upshot is that.... Subpoenas against the Law Offices of David J. Stern and the Boca Raton-based Shapiro and Fishman were quashed in the 4th District Court of Appeal, with judges ruling Bondi has no power to pursue firms under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. .... and this effectively ends the investigations into these law firms as they stand accused of falsifying paperwork in order to speed foreclosure on people's homes. This is what the people of Florida get from Ms. Bondi. Nothing. After Bondi was on record opposing a nationwide settlement with banks, she praised yesterday the mortgage settlement coming Florida's way--about $8.4 billion. She said: "This settlement will provide substantial relief to struggling Florida homeowners, and ensures that our state gets its fair share of the relief being provided nationally," Bondi said. The deal "holds banks accountable and puts in place new protections for homeowners in the form of strict mortgage servicing standards." But because so many Southwest Florida borrowers have either lost their homes to foreclosure, are delinquent in paying their mortgages or are underwater because their homes have lost so much value relative to their total debt, the settlement is being met with blistering criticism from attorneys and other real estate professionals and analysts. ..... "The settlement amounts to a proverbial drop in the bucket for homeowners in our area who are upside-down by hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Anne Weintraub, a real estate attorney with the Sarasota law firm of Band Weintraub. "Most who have lost their homes due to robo-signing and other shady practices will not find a couple of thousand dollars as a conciliation prize rewarding or helpful." ..... "Two thousand dollars for 750,000 people who may have lost their homes illegally to the banks is not very much," (Jack) McCabe (a Deerfield Beach real estate consultant) said. "To me it's a sham and pocket change compared to what people really should get after losing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars." Two #*@%^$@ thousand dollars, for homeowners who lost everything to these criminals. So, this is what the former 'tart-tongued guest legal commentator on Fox News' brings to the Florida Attorney General's Office. Scott Maxwell at the Orlando Sentinel is correct about Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Something stinks.  Photo: Steve Cannon/AP Corruption. Indifference for the people's plight. Betrayal of legal and moral principles. Just the right traits for climbing the GOP ladder. And peddled by Fox News. Floridians deserve infinitely better than this. From today's Tampa Bay Times editorial staff: (Formerly the St. Petersburg Times)
February 2, 2012  Marco Rubio (AP) U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio believes that women who work for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and charities should be subject to a religious agenda as a condition of their employment. The Florida Republican introduced a bill this week that would allow any employer with religious objections to avoid covering contraception in its employee health insurance plan. Rubio claims this would promote religious liberty. But whose? Certainly not the religious liberty of female employees. Rubio's bill, which has 20 co-sponsors including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is an attempt to extend religious dictates beyond the confines of churches and religious orders and impose them on a secular staff. Rubio is taking the side of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops against the Obama administration over a so-called "refusal clause," an exemption to the contraception requirement offered to religious entities as a nod to church-state separation under the Affordable Care Act. After the administration determined that free contraception would be part of the basic package of mandatory preventative health care coverage, the bishops demanded an expanded "refusal clause" not just for employees of churches — which the administration granted — but any affiliated organization. Under the bishops' formulation, teachers at parochial schools, social workers at religious adoption agencies and nurses at hospitals that are religiously affiliated would be denied a key health care protection. The administration rightly turned down the bishops last month, although it did delay for one year the requirement that religiously affiliated employers include contraception in health coverage without an out-of-pocket cost. But Rubio's bill would overrule the Health and Human Services Department with language so expansive that it would allow any employer, whether formally associated with a religion or not, to deny contraceptive coverage in its health care plan on the basis of a religious belief. Rubio is gaining political points with Catholic leaders such as Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, who has been threatening to drop health insurance for the diocese's approximately 2,300 employees if the mandate stands. In a letter, Lynch mistakenly claims this is a matter of church-state separation. But when the Catholic Church decides to offer a range of secular services through hospitals, schools and charities that serve clients of any faith; hires professionals without regard to religion; and takes public money such as Medicare, it does not have a right to impose religious tenets on those employees. Church-state separation protects the practice of a faith from government interference, not other endeavors that happen to be associated with a religious entity. ..... Another nail in the coffin for Rubio's premeditated grasp for very high power. Who IS Marco Rubio? In addition to being funded by the Koch brothers and directed by puppet master Jeb Bush, Rubio is but another example of the pain that right wing extremists, steeped in ideological meanness and enforced austerity, will force onto people, against their will. Another prime example is U. S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL).  U. S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) Photo credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images, via Miami Herald Rep. Stearns at center of Planned Parenthood funding dispute, February 1, 2012 Is the "political leadership" of Marco Rubio or Cliff Stearns what Americans deserve, in the face of unprecedented and cruel hardship across the country, specifically because of politicians like these? For the preservation of what we hold dear, politicians such as these should be driven out of power. They must be stripped of control over the levers of governmental power, for all time. We have an opportunity to remove a sizable number of them via a ballot this November, including Mr. Stearns of Florida. We must take it. From this past weekend in Miami:
Rubio defends himself against ‘anti-immigrant’ charges at Hispanic Leadership event By Marcos Restrepo January 27, 2012 Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told participants at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference this morning in Miami that immigration is a gateway issue that touches everyone in the Hispanic community. Rubio added that the United States must choose in the 2012 elections a different economic option than the one the current president has taken the nation in, which “will rob us of the American Dream.” When a group of young people stood up to protest, yelling, “Why are you anti-immigrant?” Rubio said they should be allowed to stay because “theses young people raise a legitimate issue.” Rubio said he wanted them to hear his speech so they could understand that he is not what they called him. ..... Conservatives have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable, Rubio added, but he said that those on the left are creating unreal expectations in the Latino community. .....  Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (Pic via Facebook) Link Rubio apparently doesn't think his own rhetoric is seen as harsh and intolerant. Some questions for Mr. Rubio: How about your dogmatic opposition to the DREAM Act, Mr. Rubio? Ninety-one percent of Latinos support it, according to the Pew Hispanic Center polling. You have pledged to oppose it. It hasn't helped your case that your carefully embellished tale of your family 'fleeing the Castro regime' fell apart in the past few months. Turns out, your family had more in common with many more Latinos who came into this country seeking economic opportunity. Your "story" was a fabrication to exploit for your election, and now everyone knows how you used that carefully crafted story to further your ambition. People do not like being lied to, Mr. Rubio. It also doesn't bode well when you present legislation to restrict flights to Cuba from other cities in Florida except from Miami. How about your assertion that 'English should be the official language in the U. S.', that you ran your Senate campaign on in 2010? It looks like Mr. Rubio, Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich are all singing from the same hymnal. How about your previously stated position on upholding Arizona's harsh crackdown on undocumented immigrants, which you also ran on in your campaign? Have you noticed that the Tea Partiers who propelled you into office are now furious that you have done nothing substantive to please them on immigration? Rubio, who is seen as a viable vice presidential candidate, is well known in Florida, but not so much by Latino voters in other states. An ABC/Univision/Latino Decisions poll released this week shows that in California, 45 percent of Latino voters have never heard of Rubio, in Texas that number is 39 percent, in New York/New Jersey it is 38 percent and in other states it is 40 percent. It looks like Mr. Rubio has some serious problems outside of Miami. But, oddly enough, from the corporate media, we never hear about it. And the real joke is that Mr. Rubio recently pointed his finger at the GOP, admonishing the party to 'tamp down the hard-edged stances on immigration'. What a hypocritical, harsh stance by Mr. Rubio, in a continual grasp for more unbridled power. People are noticing. Meanwhile, Rubio's negative numbers continue to rise-- most recently at 39% disapproval, up from 31% in March. Funny, how we never hear about this in the corporate media. By the way, Marco "Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist" Rubio ought not to use former Governor Charlie Crist's name as a punching bag. Crist's approval numbers have beaten Rubio's for quite a while now. We warned of this Jeb Bush//Koch brothers-- fueled rise of Rubio. Now we must push on until this right wing assault on our country is beaten back and marginalized for many years to come, and into permanence. Until then, all aboard the crazy train known as the Florida GOP primary. Xi meets Jeb Bush, calls for closer cooperation between China, US
Xinhuanet 2012-01-17 18:44:16  Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Jeb Bush (L), former Governor of Florida, the United States, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 17, 2012. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)  Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Jeb Bush (L), former Governor of Florida, the United States, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 17, 2012. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met with former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, calling for closer cooperation between China and the United States. Xi took time during the meeting to applaud Bush's attention to, and efforts in, the development of China-U.S. relations. "Despite ups and downs, the general relationship between China and the United States has been pushing ahead over the past 40 years," Xi said, adding that bilateral ties have become the most important in the world. The Bush family has made great contributions to promoting relations between China and the United States, "which the two nations and the two peoples will not forget," the Chinese vice president said. ..... For his part, Bush said that he will continue making contributions to the development of bilateral ties and economic cooperation between the two nations. I have a whiff of suspicion that this visit touches on continued financing of the deliberate push by wealthy conservatives to dismantle public education in America by pushing charter schools, voucher programs and declaring war on teachers' unions. It takes lots of money to train new operatives. As long as tearing down public education, extracting its funding and steering it to wealthy investors pays off for people such as Jeb Bush, there you will find him. Or, maybe Poppy simply thought he should go over for a little visit, to carry on the family tradition. Who named Jeb Bush ambassador? Interestingly, there are no details available because no police report has been released. How convenient for Mr. Rubio in keeping this under the radar.
January 22, 2012 at 9:52 p.m Naples Daily News  Michael James Brennan (Photo via Naples News) The Southwest Florida regional director for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) was arrested on battery charges in Lee County this weekend. Michael J. Brennan, of the 1400 block of Bellino Terrace, Bonita Springs, was arrested Saturday morning by Lee deputies at the Quality Inn Suites on Indian Paint Lane. The 39 year old is facing a misdemeanor battery charge. He was released Saturday afternoon after posting $1,000 bond. In a written statement, a spokesperson for Sen. Rubio said, "We take these charges very seriously and are disturbed about the incident. We are monitoring the situation and are awaiting further details." There are no further details as an arrest report is not available at this time. ..... So, Mr. Rubio. We're watching. Whatcha gonna do?  (Via ABC News) Perpetual presidential candidate Mitt Romney is having some bad days.
Alexander Burns of Politico reported last summer: July 14, 2011 A company that laid off hundreds of employees. A federal “bailout” to rescue a failing bank. Mitt Romney, at the center of it all. ..... In every one of Romney’s campaigns, his time in the private sector — specifically, at the consulting firm Bain & Co. and the investment company Bain Capital — has been a double-edged credential, branding him as a savvy businessman while tying him to countless controversial management decisions. ..... In 2012, those familiar attacks from his past are likely to take on a new potency: Bain Capital’s involvement in mass layoffs is likely to haunt Romney in a campaign focused on jobs. Other episodes, such as the claims that Romney benefited from a federal bank rescue, could ignite anew. ..... “The way the company was rescued was with a federal bailout of $10 million,” the ad (from nearly 20 years ago) says. “The rest of us had to absorb the loss … Romney? He and others made $4 million in this deal. … Mitt Romney: Maybe he’s just against government when it helps working men and women.” The facts of the Bain & Co. turnaround are a little more complicated, but a Boston Globe report from 1994 confirms that Bain saw several million dollars in loans forgiven by the FDIC, which had taken over Bain’s failed creditor, the Bank of New England. ..... Taxpayers got stuck with the bill from Mitt Romney. Let's look at what else was going on during this period of notorious Savings and Loan theft of taxpayer dollars. What names were popping up? Interestingly, there was Neil Bush, son of George H. W. Bush. Mother Jones, 1992: ..... Neil served as a director of Silverado Banking, Savings and Loan in Denver, Colorado, from 1985 until 1988. During that time, the now-dead thrift made over $200 million in loans to Neil's two partners in JNB Exploration, Neil's abysmally unsuccessful oil company. Silverado's failure was due at least in part to the fact that Neil's two partners welshed on $132 million in loans. Federal regulators determined that, while Silverado was pumping loans to Neil's two associates, Neil was completely dependent on the two men for his income. The failure of Silverado -- its closure delayed until after the 1988 election -- cost taxpayers about $1 billion. After almost two years of hand-wringing had passed, an expert hired by regulators declared that Neil suffered from an "ethical disability," and he was required to pay a $50,000 fine for his ethical lapses at Silverado. Neil's estimated $250,000 in legal bills generated by the scandal are reportedly being paid for him by a banking-industry lobbyist who is fighting to get banks deregulated. After Silverado failed, Neil started a new oil company, Apex Energy. This time, his money came from a $2.35 million loan through a Small Business Administration program, a loan arranged by an old family friend. When news of this reached the press in March 1991, the SBA discovered that the companies through which the loan was approved were technically insolvent, and it gave them up to thirty months to "self-liquidate." This meant that Apex would have to repay its SBA-guaranteed loans. Neil took this as his cue to move on, and he left Apex -- and its debts -- for others to worry about. If Apex Energy can't be sold for more than it owes, the SBA, and ultimately the taxpayers, will be stuck with the difference. The last time we checked, Apex's only known asset was an oil lease, which the company had purchased from Neil for $150,000 before he bailed out. That means taxpayers could get stiffed for another $2.2 million as a result of Neil Bush's wheeling and dealing. The public won't learn the precise outcome until later this year, though. The SBA allowed thirty months for liquidation of the SBA investment in Apex, putting the resolution date just past the 1992 general election. ..... Taxpayers got stuck with the bill from Neil Bush. And look at another name that popped up in Florida during this same time period. Why, it was Jeb Bush, yet another son of George H. W. Bush. NYT, October 14, 1990: After Jeb Bush, a son of the President, and a partner bought a Miami office building using money an associate had borrowed from a local savings and loan, the Federal Government wound up repaying most of the loan. The savings institution became insolvent, and the Government paid more than $4 million to make good the loan as part of the bailout of the savings industry. Mr. Bush and his partner negotiated a settlement with regulators in which they repaid $505,000 and retained control of the building. While they still have a $7 million mortgage to pay on that property, the settlement with the Government lifted from their backs a $4.565 million second mortgage. There is no evidence that Mr. Bush or his partner improperly influenced the settlement process. Mr. Bush, in an interview, said he was a ''victim of circumstance'' and had no involvement in the settlement talks. ..... The loan was made by Broward Federal Savings and Loan in Sunrise, Fla., which became insolvent in 1988 because of what regulators said were poor lending practices on commercial loans in the mid-1980's. The cost of cleaning up Broward Federal has been estimated at $285 million. ..... (Federal officials) said no preferential treatment had been accorded the President's 37-year-old son and his partner (Armando Codina). All of this was settled out of court, deep-sixing any public scrutiny or discussion. Oh, and part of the settlement was that Bush and Codina were allowed to keep the building because 'its value was less than the first mortgage'. Nice. Taxpayers got stuck with the bill from Jeb Bush. Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and brother Neil Bush. One of them pushes his "educational software" Ignite, ostensibly to help students pass the FCAT. Magically, Neil Bush's software sales somehow benefited from the stream of federal money orchestrated by brother George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program.  Neil Bush (Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press) One of them is running for president, and was recently 'endorsed' by George H. W. Bush.  Pat Sullivan/Associated PressMitt Romney paid a visit to former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, at their Houston home in early December. Link Another one of them lusts for the presidency just offstage.  Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and brother Neil Bush. Bailed out by taxpayers. Then they walked away. Now, a couple of them want to be president. Former U.S. Senator and Governor of Florida, Bob Graham, in an interview with Florida Trend:
January 4, 2012  (Photo credit: Jeffrey Salter) ..... I don't think Floridians appreciate the ethical challenge that our state faces. The Department of Justice publishes a state-by-state list of public officials who have been convicted of some crime. Florida was not only No. 1, but there was a noticeable gap between No. 1 and No. 2. When you ask people what's the most corrupt state, they may say New Jersey. But we're here. ..... I'm disappointed that some of the things I believe are very important for Florida's future, such as land and water management and education, seem to be under assault. There's no correlation between the policies that were repealed and their ability to contribute to jobs. I had a conversation with Jeb Bush, who agreed with me that (dismantling the water management districts) was bad for water, but it was also bad for the office of the governor because the governor effectively has control over the water-management districts. So why do you need to dismantle the districts and turn a substantial amount of what's now the governor's responsibility over to the Legislature, where I'm afraid it will be politicized? ..... I see education and the environment as being the two main pillars for Florida's ability to respond as we move through the 21st century. And, for me, this brought back an aching sense of loss for what has happened to this country over the past decade, and the missed opportunities for corrective leadership. I wish I didn't have to have open-heart surgery in the middle of my campaign (2003) for president. I don't know if I would have been the nominee, but I think it would have been a better performance. Always the master of understatement. Thank you for years of dedicated leadership, Senator and Governor Graham. We are most fortunate to have Florida's most beloved political leader walking among us, still illuminating the way forward at a time of painful, repressive and deliberately engineered conservative regression in our state. Source: St. Petersburg Times
..... For the first time in almost 90 years, hunters are allowed to kill a limited number of migratory sandhill cranes. The birds typically leave their nesting grounds in Canada and the Great Lakes each winter to fly to Florida. The nearly monthlong season runs until Jan. 15, with no more than 400 birds being harvested. If the hunt goes smoothly, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to repeat it next year. Kentucky is the only state east of the Mississippi River to allow the hunt, although Tennessee has considered a similar proposal. ..... The news hit hard at the Florida Trail Association office in Gainesville, where plans are under way for the first Florida Crane and Nature Festival on Jan. 14. The event will celebrate the migration of thousands of sandhill cranes to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, said Dennis Miranda, the association's executive director. "I am horrified to think that any state would open up a hunting season with the notion that shooting cranes is a sport," Miranda said. Although Kentucky hunters have described the bird as a wary and challenging prey, Miranda described the cranes' behavior at Paynes Prairie as more like sitting ducks. "These birds will land in any marsh or a field in flocks," he said. "I think it's a tragedy." ..... Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest...  SKIP O’ROURKE | Times Two sandhill cranes work their way through a field, foraging for food off of Town Center Boulevard in Brandon (FL) on Tuesday.  MAURICE RIVENBARK | Times Each winter, sandhill cranes head to Florida from nesting grounds in Canada and the Great Lakes. Endangered whooping cranes are currently on their way to Florida, led by ultralite aircraft and a dedicated team of migration experts. These birds recently passed through Kentucky, at times being joined by Sandhill cranes on the way south. Follow their daily journey here. Can we do no better for all of these magnificent birds than to hope hunters can tell the difference, that it is "past peak time" for whooping crane migration through Kentucky, and that for the survival of Sandhill cranes, pray for poor aim? How about it, Mr. McConnell? How about it, Mr. Paul? This breaks my heart. |
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