Daily Clips for November 17, 2009

FEATURED STORIES

Sink, McCollum scale back use of state airplanes
By Marc Caputo and Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The two leading candidates for Florida's governor have grounded their high-flying ways on state-owned airplanes.

Crist puts brakes on travel costs
By Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
Gov. Charlie Crist is requiring state employees to get high-level approval for out-of-state trips, to carpool on in-state travel and to stay at cheap hotels.

Democrats scouting for CFO hopeful
By Catherine Dolinski
Tampa Tribune
Next year could be a watershed for Florida Democrats, who have an opportunity to regain parity or even take the lead on the state Cabinet.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Crist's communications director makes resignation official
By Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
Gov. Charlie Crist's communications director formalized her resignation late Monday, warmly thanking the governor for about three years of interesting work but giving no indication what she plans to do next.

Ousted House speaker's defense: Legislature approved the money, not just me
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Former House Speaker Ray Sansom says it was all there for any member of the Legislature to review: millions in taxpayer dollars stuck in the state budget for a Panhandle college.

Sansom case could wind up before the Supreme Court
By Gary Fineout
The Fine Print
One potential bit of fallout from the ongoing legal case involving ousted House Speaker Ray Sansom is that it could actually have an impact on Florida's existing anti-corruption laws and it could easily wind up before the state Supreme Court.

2010 RACES

When a hug becomes a kiss of death
By Carol E. Lee
Politico
Charlie Crist is getting killed by a hug.

Rubio ad in Fla. Senate race mimics Obama ad
By Brendan Farrington
The Associated Press
Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, who criticizes Gov. Charlie Crist for being a fan of President Barack Obama's stimulus package, is himself a fan of one of Obama's campaign ads.

Senate candidate Marco Rubio delivers a right swing during Naples stop
By Carrie Wise
Naples News
Republican senatorial candidate Marco Rubio thinks the title of senator sounds nice.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

A stand against hypocrisy
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Alex Sink raised the bar in the race for Florida governor Sunday by calling for the state to end an outright ban that prevents gays and lesbians from adopting.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Feds to Set State Pollution Limits
By Bill Kaczor
The Associated Press
The federal government will attempt to set Florida's water pollution standards - the first time it'll try that for any state - under an agreement approved Monday.

Florida Keys, land-buying on Cabinet agenda
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
The Cabinet could have a somewhat busy agenda today on environmental issues.

Nuclear companies face reactor design problems, ethics questions
By Sue Sturgis
Facing South
Federal regulators have expressed serious safety concerns about the design for 14 of the nation's 25 proposed new nuclear reactors, raising questions about the future of what the industry calls its "renaissance."

Florida Preservation: Forever's Time Runs Out
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
Forever, as it turns out, arrived in 2009. That is when the shortsighted members of the Florida Legislature managed to kill all funding for the Florida Forever program.

Sunshine Amid The Clouds
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
Florida's prospects for producing clean, renewble energy are growing brighter.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Santa Claus is Coming to Florida
By Whitney Ray
Capital News Service
Florida retailers are preparing for a busy holiday shopping season a year after posting the worst sales numbers in 40 years.

Space Coast economic leaders propose using Shuttle Logistics Depot for military refurb work
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
Space Coast economic leaders are asking NASA to allow a private company the indefinite use of a building full of high-tech equipment in the hope of saving hundreds of high-skill jobs when the space shuttle program ends.

EDUCATION

Mass Teacher Protest Set for Tonight
By Gina Presson
Public News Service Florida
Protesters say they'll surround the K.C. Wright Building in downtown Fort Lauderdale starting at 5 p.m. today.

School grades: Still an F
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post
Related: Should Florida abolish school grades?
What happened this year in the Palm Beach County School District began 10 years ago in Tallahassee.

Brevard schools spend FCAT bonuses
By Megan Downs
Florida Today
Most Brevard Public School employees will receive a bonus in Friday's paycheck because of their work that helped boost school grades and improve FCAT scores.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Two Senators Seek Medicaid Change
By John Kennedy
News Service of Florida via Lakeland Ledger
Two Florida senators said Monday the state should consider dropping out of the federal-state Medicaid program to avoid a planned expansion and create its own health care system for low-income residents.

Seniors feel squeeze of Medicare hikes
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
Cynthia Greenberg has been automatically renewing her Medicare HMO policy for three years and had been relatively happy with it.

Did $1-a-pack tax get smokers to quit -- or get more creative?
By Josh Hafenbrack
Orlando Sentinel
Cigarette sales have fallen sharply across Florida since Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a $1-a-pack tax increase this summer, plunging nearly 50 percent in some counties.

SWAT regroups its tobacco prevention effort
By Marc Valero
Tampa Tribune
By placing 88 small crosses on lockers in their school's main hallway on Thursday, a few Lake Placid High School students want to illustrate the message that 88 people die each day in Florida from smoking-related causes.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida's Innocence Project partners with Stetson University to help free the wrongly convicted
By Lisa Marzilli
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
A new alliance between Stetson University and a Tallahassee legal defense organization could hopefully mean freedom for some of the wrongfully convicted trapped in Florida prisons.

Attorney Rothstein explored countries without extradition treaties for 'client'
By Paula McMahon, Sally Kestin and Peter Franceschina
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Ten days before Scott Rothstein flew to Morocco as his alleged Ponzi scheme was about to implode, he sent an e-mail to every attorney in the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm.