News Researcher, Tampa Bay Times
John Martin joined the Tampa Bay Times, formerly the St. Petersburg Times, as a news researcher in 1995. He served as Times research editor for three years before returning to research full time in 2006.
The latest Truth-O-Meter items from John Martin
If voters agree in November to approve a one-cent sales tax increase, that will give "Hillsborough County the highest sales tax of all Florida counties."
"(Ronald Reagan) raised taxes a billion dollars in his first year as governor of California."
An anonymous e-mail says that Hillary Clinton advocates communism.
"I get the most money from active duty officers and military personnel."
"People were hopeless. Sixty percent of the population, 70 percent of the population wanted to live somewhere else. . . . By the time I left, 70 percent wanted to stay."
"Right now, an employer has more of a chance of getting hit by lightning than be prosecuted for hiring an undocumented worker. That has to change."
"Our tax code is so complicated it extracts $140 billion in extra tax preparation costs every year - one thousand dollars for every American family."
In 2006, Arizona had four ballot issues that were "very tough on illegal immigration... Forty-seven percent of the Hispanics in Arizona voted for them."
"The Iraq Study Group reported that (Saddam Hussein) had designs on reviving his nuclear program."
Recent stories from John Martin
Gravel: I'm not dead yetIn an exclusive interview with PolitiFact, the former Alaska senator confirms his status in the presidential campaign.
Commie e-mail quiz gets an FAn anonymous e-mail makes the case that Sen. Clinton holds the same beliefs as Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin by using communist-sounding quotes. But the e-mail presents her statements out of context or distorts them.
Who made Big Apple sweeter?Rudy Giuliani presided over an economic rebound in New York City, but his claims ignore the nation's economic expansion. And he doesn't mention the less rosy details of his tenure.
McCain overbids on eBayThe Republicans clashed on taxes, the economy and Iraq during a debate in Dearborn, Mich. They fumbled a few facts along the way.
Giuliani says a little too much about Democrats and taxesDemocrats and taxes make an easy target for a Republican, but Giuliani can't quite justify his claim for how high taxes would go.
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