Daily Clips for December 16, 2009

FEATURED STORIES

Promising new jobs, Crist to sign rail bill
By Gary Fineout
Ocala Star-Banner
Related AP report: Gov. Crist to sign rail bill in 4 cities
Gov. Charlie Crist, citing the prospect of "jobs, jobs, jobs," today will sign into law a sweeping measure meant to put in place the framework for a statewide rail system that will one day crisscross the state.

Gov. Charlie Crist launches investigation into 'pancake' e-mails
By Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist waded into an odd public-records squabble Tuesday by asking the state's inspector general to conduct an inquiry into Florida Department of Transportation e-mails that bear the headlines "pancake," "Pancakes" and "French Toast."

FLORIDA POLITICS

SayfieReview.com/AIF/Zogby: Florida Divided
Statewide Poll
Sayfie Review
Florida likely voters have mixed opinion of President's health reform proposal but majority hold favorable opinion of President; GOP leads generic Congressional ballot.

Group calls Carroll GOP's best solution
By David Hunt
Florida Times-Union
Two Florida Republicans, one of them a state GOP committeeman, are pushing a solution to the ideological differences that have intensified throughout the party in past year.

DOT under fire for rail bill e-mails
By Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
What Florida Department of Transportation officials say was just an eye-catching little gimmick in e-mail messages about high-speed rail systems has become a political conflict with legal overtones.

CSX/SunRail Deal: The Breakfast of Concealers
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
If state Sen. Paula Dockery wins the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink wins the Democratic counterpart, two things are certain.

DOT's "Wafflegate" needs a closer look
Editorial
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
For all the good it promises, the rail legislation approved last week by the Legislature smacked of a sweetheart deal.

LeMieux's legacy: Florida's junior senator could better use his time by working for bipartisan solutions
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Florida's George LeMieux seems intent on making a splash during his brief tenure in the U.S. Senate.

2010 RACES

Poll: Crist And Rubio Now Tied In Florida GOP Primary
By Eric Kleefeld
Talking Points Memo
The new Rasmussen poll of the Florida Republican Senate primary has big news for conservative insurgent candidate Marco Rubio -- he's now tied with moderate Gov. Charlie Crist, the favorite of the GOP establishment.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Incumbents dread amendments to end custom-fit districts
By Mark Lane
Daytona Beach News-Journal
One of the great unchanging things about the Florida Legislature is the way it resents being told what to do by voters.

Developers Rush to Get Ahead of Amendment 4
Staff Report
News Service of Florida via WBOB Radio Jacksonville
The prospect of land-use changes going before voters if constitutional Amendment 4 is approved next year, is sparking an unprecedented crush of proposals being sent to state planning officials.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Crist meets with Ala., Ga. governors on water-sharing
Staff Report
News Service of Florida via FloridaEnvironments.com
Gov. Charlie Crist met with his two neighboring governors today in Alabama to renew efforts to resolve a dispute over water usage and the three emerged confident they'll resolve the dispute rather than let a federal judge's solution stand.

The Exotic Menace
By Dinah Voyles Pulver
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Florida's problems with exotic, invasive plants and animals developed over a long period and won't be resolved quickly.

Brevard Commission OKs 13K new homes
By Rick Neale
Florida Today
Developers can create new communities containing more than 13,300 homes across 36 square miles of Space Coast woodland and cattle pasture, the Brevard County Commission ruled Tuesday.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Jobless Floridians encounter delays in getting extended unemployment benefits
By Jeff Harrington
St. Petersburg Times
Nearly six weeks after President Barack Obama extended unemployment benefits in hard-hit states like Florida, Janet Husted of St. Petersburg is still waiting for her first check.

Port of Palm Beach's inland port draws criticism from all sides ahead of key vote
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
Port of Palm Beach efforts to build a warehousing and distribution complex that would serve South Florida's three seaports has come under mounting criticism in recent weeks from a competing port, potential allies and environmentalists.

$309 million slated for Pensacola area
By Bart Jansen
Pensacola News Journal
Military bases around Pensacola will get construction projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a spending bill that Congress has sent to President Barack Obama.

Avis agrees to refund some fees
By Lee Logan
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Avis Rent A Car has agreed to refund some customers a $2.50 per day ``Plate Pass'' fee that was charged even on days customers didn't use the toll payment service.

EDUCATION

Legislator files bill to do away with FCAT
By Katherine Albers and Leslie Williams Hale
Naples News
A Florida representative from Miami who proposed a failed 1 percent sales tax for education last year is suggesting another big change: to do away with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT.

AP results should spur parents into action
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
The revelation of vastly different passing rates for college-level Advance Placement exams taken by Tampa Bay high school students is an opportunity for positive change.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Upbeat Obama Says Senate Near Health Bill Passage
By David Espo
The Associated PressProdded by President Barack Obama, Senate Democrats won tentative backing from one holdout and worked intensely to satisfy another Tuesday as they grappled with the last, lingering disputes blocking passage of health care legislation by Christmas.

Dozens rally in Orlando against health care legislation
By Fernando Quintero
Orlando Sentinel
As President Barack Obama called Senate Democrats to the White House Tuesday to solidify support for health care reform, groups opposed to the legislation met in Orlando and in cities throughout the country for a "senate emergency rally."

Health reform's last chance
Editorial
Daytona Beach News-Joural
It would be frustrating but grudgingly respectable if health care reform were to hinge on the principles of a single lawmaker.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Judges allow lawsuit challenging prisons' religion programs
Staff Report
St. Petersburg Times
The state prison system's use of Christian and other faith-based programs can be challenged in court by a secular humanist group, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday.

Jennifer Martin to walk free Wednesday after state clemency board cuts sentence in half
By Meg Laughlin
St. Petersburg Times
Jennifer Martin got a call from the director of clemency in Tallahassee on Tuesday.