Kenny Malone

Today is  the 57th presidential election in U.S. history.  But we wanted to take a breath and talk about election number 37: Hoover v. FDR.

A little over a month ago, on The Florida Roundup, host Phil Latzman made a request for the Dispatches from the Swing State project.

Marvin Francis crouched over and dug into a yellow and forest green La Salle High School miniature duffel bag. "'NObama'; 'You Lie,'" he read from a pile of oversized red, white and blue buttons. A small crowd peaked over his shoulders, holding five and ten dollar bills at their sides.

"I think that's all the selection I have left. And 'Obama Sucks,'" he added. "That's the only other one that I have that I didn't want to put out 'cause there's too many young kids."

Today was an important day for former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, his first day back from the Hurricane Sandy campaign hiatus.

Romney spent the day in a state uniquely associated with hurricanes (Florida) and made his second stop at a university nicknamed "The Hurricanes" (the University of Miami).

The Florida Department of Health said today there is not a cancer cluster just east of Hialeah, in a neighborhood often referred to as Broadmoor.

On July 19th, 2012 a resident from the Broadmoor area, Vanessa Shelton, went before the Miami-Dade County Commission during a public hearing about a nearby metal recycling facility.

During the previous debate, our Dispatches from the Swing State team met an interesting character in a Key West pub -- a local server named Patti Wilde who is originally from Cincinnati and is something of a local celebrity.

Or, as she explains it, "I mean, I used to be. I've been here 30 years so they go, 'oh, Cincinnati Patti's here.' But now they don't do that anymore. They go, 'Larry!'"

"Larry" is Patti Wilde's cat -- a very large cat that sits calmly on the bar stool wherever she goes.

Flagler County, where Palm Coast is located, has the highest unemployment rate in Florida. 1 in 8 workers there is without a job.

Our Dispatches from the Swing State project passed through Palm Coast yesterday and stopped at a hotdog stand where they met John Sabia.

Sabia works only for tips at Hot Diggity Dog. He’s helping out the owner who happens to be his son.

Sabia says when Palm Coast was booming, the hotdog stand had a line for hours and US1 was backed up with traffic.

But then, the collapse.

Everyone #FLDispatches talked to about oystering told us the same thing: oysters are unusually scarce this season. 32-year-old Matt Hodges has been oystering for about three years and says the problem comes from a combination of overharvesting, a long stretch of drought and then torrential fresh water from Debbie and Isaac this year. Matt and his wife Holly are one of a handful of married oystering couples who work out of the Ochlockonee Bay that splits Wakulla and Franklin Counties.

There were just over 21-hundred jobs in the agriculture and mining sector in Lee County, by the last census numbers.

Our Dispatches from the Swing State project dropped in on one of the less conventional agriculture positions at the Umbuzi experimental farm in Buckingham, Florida.

Herald photographer Patrick Farrell and I are driving around the state to cut straight to the Florida voters and issues of the 2012 presidential election.

At the Umbuzi farm, we met award-winning goat cheese maker Jim Ellis.

David Shealy makes a lot of his money off Florida’s version of Bigfoot. He sells T-shirts, bumper stickers and hot sauce out of the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters off the Tamiami Trail in Ochopee, Florida.

Known just by his first name, Antuan, the 40-year-old artist is a sculptor provocateur whose work is at times absurd (brains, pills and ashtrays) and more often profound (Holocaust memorial pieces). Antuan says that growing up in Cuba gave him political "trauma." He loves the freedom of democracy, but doesn't trust government.

Twin sisters Carrie Guise of Tampa, Fla., and Mindy Magrath of Raleigh, N.C., came to Key West to celebrate their birthday, not talk politics. But when #FLDispatches discovered the sisters had parted political paths, an impromptu debate was too good to pass up. Sisterly banter ensued and political persuasions were reassessed.

Key West's "Smallest Bar" is 72-square-feet of cash-only drinks and customer abuse. "No, I'm not from here," says bartender Dean Humfleet, "I have all my teeth."

A version of this story first ran in The Miami Herald on April 28, 2012.

When Starz network’s Magic City came to town last year to shoot their 1959 Miami Beach drama, producers were obsessive.

“God is in the details,” said Magic City’s executive producer, writer and Miami Beach native Mitch Glazer. “We were rigorous about everything across the board from music to architecture down to that.”

That meaning breast augmentation.

Ordering beer at a baseball game is as American as apple pie. So is forking over a small fortune for beer at a baseball game. Eight dollars for a Bud Light draft at Miami Marlins Park.

“It’s kind of weird,” says Shane Marinelli on his first visit to the new stadium. “I’m used to, like, $3 pitcher nights and like dollar beers and stuff. But I have no choice, you know, this is — this is expensive.”

Marinelli, a student at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, works part time at a sporting goods store. An $8 dollar beer soaks up a nice sized swig of his paycheck.

Florida has one of the strictest rules in the country for lobbyist gift-giving: an absolute ban.

And the state has one of toughest laws for campaign contributions: a $500 limit.

And yet, there’s a contradiction that everyone in Tallahassee seems to know about.

A lobbyist cannot buy a legislator dinner, or a cup of coffee, or a bottle of water. But a lobbyist can hand over a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “CCE.”

Florida has a national reputation for its Public Records Law. But a new study by the Center for Public Integrity and Public Radio International has given the Sunshine State a D in “Public Access to Information.”

The State Integrity Investigation is the first attempt to look across all states at how good the system is for preventing political corruption.

The investigation graded each state on more than 300 indicators of accountability, transparency, and corruption risk. The indicators are divided into 14 categories, which appear on the report card.

The State Integrity Investigation – a collaboration of Public Radio International, the Center for Public Integrity and WLRN in Miami – is the first comprehensive look at state government  for every state in the country. What’s working? What’s not working? How susceptible is the process to corruption? 

Florida's government, overall, was given a C-minus for its integrity – not great, but still the 18th best in the country.

We’re psyched to be able to share a piece of archival Hurricane Andrew ephemera from a familiar voice for some South Florida radio listeners. Joe Johnson  has been a DJ at Majic 102.7 for the last 25 years. He hosts the nationally syndicated “Beatle Brunch” show.

This story originally appeared in The Miami Herald on March 19, 2012.

The first time Florida Sen. Chris Smith, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, ran for office, he was just three years out of law school - a 28-year-old who still believed in the power of his lucky navy blue suit. As Smith puts it, he was a "nobody" from Broward County.

By day, Arlene Delgado is an ad designer who deals with things like web design, branding and logos.

But when the sun goes down, she sometimes turns into somewhat of an ad avenger.

The Miami native says she's been aware of ads around her all her life from the usual suspects - billboards, banners, murals, and bus stops.

But she wanted to turn the tables a bit by with words that aren't so commercial.

She points and then reads out loud one of her creations, inspired by a Tarot card.

'Judge fairly, speak truth and never waiver from your standards.'