I grew up in part there and half my family are Florida natives. We have been in the state for over 150 years on my dads side. I can honestly say that news like this isn't surprising. Local governments in Florida (even left of centre ones) can be very clique like. Corruption to just blatant unfairness are common. Most who live in the state don't notice it, but situations like the one above can be the norm. When I worked in public service there seeing corrupt unfair bias crap was pretty common. In fact some things can get pretty whacky there when it comes to local as well as state level corrupt behaviour from government. Poor couple though. Sucks when enterprising folks can't be free to hard graft and do their thing. Great post.