PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS
New map suggests coastal residents aren't buying off-shore drilling concept
A new map recently released, suggests residents near the coast aren't buying the concept of off-shore drilling.
FEATURED STORIES
By Adam C. Smith, Beth Reinhard and Scott Hiaasen
Marco Rubio was barely solvent as a young lawmaker climbing his way to the top post in the Florida House, but special interest donations and political perks allowed him to spend big money with little scrutiny.
By Mary Ellen Klas
Related editorial: Speak up, keep Florida in the sunshine
A celebration of the public's right to know
Miami Herald
Bush keeps Crist in his gun sights
St. Petersburg Times
Florida lawmakers prepare to make deep cuts
Florida Times-Union
EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Andy Marlette
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
By Aaron Deslatte
The biggest budget battle likely to play out in Tallahassee this spring turns on Republican lawmakers' deep resentment of President Barack Obama's stimulus bailout and their drive to reform Florida's beleaguered Medicaid program.
By Mary Ellen Klas
As Florida legislators take out the scalpels and start making decisions this week on which programs will be sliced out of the state budget as a way to start closing the $3.2 billion budget gap, the House and Senate will showcase issues designed to show they're doing some positive things, too.
By Martin Merzer
The grand jury that indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom expressed itself clearly on the matter of openness and transparency in the legislative sausage-making known as the final budget process.
By Anika Myers Palm
At first glance, this might seem to be a good time to hold a job in Florida as an advocate and protector of open government.
Staff Report
A selection of legislators who have acted in the interest of Florida's Sunshine Laws or who have sponsored bills that are contrary to them.
By Paula Dockery
It shouldn't be so hard to pass a law that requires state legislators to publicly disclose when they or a family member could personally benefit from legislation before them.
By Catherine Whittenburg
Creating jobs and cutting spending may be lawmakers' declared priorities this spring, but that has not dissuaded some conservatives from filing a raft of proposals relating to abortion and the unborn.
By Ron Word
In a previous life, Larry Cretul crawled under jet aircraft on the deck of the USS Forrestal, pulling safety pins to arm the weapons, seconds before the F4 Phantoms catapulted off the deck on the way to their next mission.
By Sara Kennedy
State Sen. Mike Bennett has filed a bill that could limit a homeowner's or condo association's ability to sue over defective drywall, according to attorneys representing those dealing with contaminated property.
By Josh Hafenbrack
Florida law requires sheriffs to live within two miles of the county seat -- close enough to get there quickly by horse.
By Cristina Silva
A $24.8 million medical negligence claim against the University of South Florida Tampa is proceeding swiftly through the legislative process.
Editorial
The legislative session that started last week already has been defined by one overwhelming force: The state's $3 billion-plus budget shortfall.
Editorial
In their desperation to deal with a $3 billion deficit, budget chiefs in the Florida House and Senate have proposed eliminating state aid to public libraries.
POLITICAL RACES
By Ron Littlepage
Finally, the Republican brawl over who gets to run in November for one of Florida's U.S. Senate seats has gotten down to the issues that really matter.
By Gary Fineout
There is a report on Saturday that goes into great detail about how former House Speaker Marco Rubio used political committees to "spend big money with little scrutiny."
By Brendan Farrington
Gov. Charlie Crist is one of the nicest guys in Florida politics.
By Aaron Sharockman
In the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Gov. Charlie Crist is attempting to cast Marco Rubio as earmark-hungry and a lavish spender, even dubbing him "Porkus Rubio."
By Collin Levy
"They voted for somebody they'd never heard of in Barack Obama because he ran on the platform of a very devoted centrist."
By David Hunt
A delayed flight had Gov. Charlie Crist running late. He'd barely made the first of two events he'd scheduled in Jacksonville on Friday.
By Tom Jensen
Neither of the top candidates for Governor of Florida is particularly well known or liked but with the national political winds blowing in a Republican direction Bill McCollum has the solid early lead.
By David Damron
Republican Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty recently sent Central Florida's congressional delegation his requested "earmarks," those hometown projects members of Congress insert into the federal budget that are often tagged as "pork."
By Matt Dixon
Sen. Al Lawson says he will raise money for his Congressional campaign during Florida's regular legislative session.
By David Hunt
As nationwide voter frustration threatens Democratic incumbents this election year, the reputed bulldog Democrat from conservative Northeast Florida says she is focused on pushing liberal platforms like public-option health care, not on campaigning.
By David Damron
Sarah Palin lashed out at Washington, the media and condescending liberals Friday night at an Orlando Republican fund-raising event, and predicted the GOP would restore "common sense" to government in the upcoming November elections.
By Cary McMullen
Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, made their first speaking appearance as a couple since leaving the White House at Southeastern University on Friday.
BALLOT INITIATIVES
By Steve Bousquet
A citizens' initiative on the November ballot aimed at forcing the Legislature to draw political districts differently is drawing resistance from some African-American political leaders.
By Lesley Blackner
Amendment 4 isn't on the ballot until November, but our opposition is already in overdrive.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
By Howard Troxler
Last year, when some in our Legislature wanted to throw open Florida's waters to oil drilling right away, the president of our state Senate slowed it down.
By Brian Haugen
You've heard the old phrase "one in the hand, two in the bush"?
By Karen Voyles
Three months into 2010, Florida already has set an annual record for manatee deaths, and the number is expected to continue rising.
By Bruce Ritchie
States, industries and scientists should work together to plan for the management and use of natural resources in oceans, panelists at a Florida Oceans Day workshop said Wednesday.
Staff Report
Algae blooms that create red tide, which kill fish and threaten tourism in Florida, would become a focus of government study under legislation the House approved Friday.
Editorial
When it comes to finding energy, the Legislature seems stuck in the past. It would rather talk about drilling for fossil fuels than lighting up Florida's future with renewable energy.
LGBT
By Fred Grimm
Once they were gay. Or homosexual. Occasionally they turned up as same-sex couples.
By Mark Lane
It's something of a rule in state politics: The more ethics scandals are bubbling in Tallahassee, the more interested legislators become in policing the outside world's morality.
Only Disney could like movie tax credit plan
Palm Beach Post
EDUCATION
By Shannon Colavecchio and Hannah Sampson
When Pasco County school principal Ginny Yanson had to get rid of a bad teacher recently, it was like running an obstacle course.
By Sam Dillon
The Obama administration on Saturday called for a broad overhaul of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests, narrowed the curriculum, and labeled one in three American schools as failing.
By Jeff Schmucker
A proposal to cut school board members' salaries across the state has two Hernando County School Board members claiming that state lawmakers are playing politics and creating double standards.
By Nancy Noonan
House Speaker Larry Cretul's op-ed piece in last Sunday's Star-Banner was filled with talk of Florida's multibillion-dollar budget shortfall and the apparent need to make "hard and difficult choices."
By Leslie Postal
More than a decade ago, Florida social-studies teachers started lobbying to make their subject part of a statewide testing program.
Editorial
There isn't a stand-alone metric to measure the effectiveness of teachers who inspire us to pursue our careers.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
By Aaron Deslatte
State lawmakers have floated more than $160 million in tax breaks this session to entice everything from the film industry to commercial space ventures, biotechnology firms and a host of other companies to spend more money, buy more equipment or hire more workers.
By Bill Cotterell
Searching for money to patch holes in the state budget, Florida legislators have squeezed everything done at the Department of Management Services.
By Alex Leary
When President Barack Obama revealed his plan for the nation's space program, he turned to Buzz Aldrin to explain the new direction, one imagined as more innovative and ambitious.
By Martha Brannigan
Looking across a glistening Biscayne Bay on a recent chilly morning, Wells Fargo & Co. Chairman and Chief Executive John Stumpf pointed east and asked, "What's that, over there?"
By Paige St. John
Today, nearly half of Florida's home insurance is provided by companies whose primary profit comes not from insuring homes but from diverting premiums into a host of side ventures.
By Andres Viglucci
On Halloween, children in the small suburban city of West Park in Broward County got candy wrapped in the 2010 Census logo.
By Bob Christie
Florida and the four other states hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis have been given only weeks to plan how to spend $1.5 billion in federal funding announced by the Obama administration last month.
By Paul Owers
Florida's interim emergency management director sent a letter this week to federal disaster officials, asking that they provide financial aid to thousands of households affected by Chinese drywall.
By Matt Dixon
The two members of Congress representing the Panhandle requested $401.7 million in earmarks for industries regionwide for the 2009-10 budget.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
By Jim Saunders
A dramatic expansion of Medicaid managed care, increased hospital taxes and slashed spending on some health and social programs are all part of a Senate committee's initial budget proposal.
By Dara Kam
About 100 Holocaust survivors living in Palm Beach County are among the elderly who could wind up in nursing homes if state lawmakers approve proposed budget cuts to senior services this week.
The Associated Press
President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are pulling together a final version of a health care overhaul bill and pushing for House votes as early as this week.
By Mimi Hall
In a backlash against President Obama's health care legislation that stretches from Virginia to California, lawmakers in more than two-thirds of the states are scrambling to undercut the bill before it even passes Congress.
By John Dorschner
Related: Downsized Jackson system will mean pain for all
While the Jackson's nurses' union demonstrated Friday against job and wage cuts, the county mayor and Jackson's chief executive were invoking technical legal language that could lead to forcing union workers to accept pay cuts.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
By Bill Cotterell
A group of minority business owners and the Florida Black Chamber of Commerce announced a federal lawsuit against the state Friday, alleging that black-owned businesses were discriminated against in hiring a census promoter for minority communities.
By Frank Fernandez
A federal trial this month will decide whether Volusia County must provide Spanish language ballots after some Puerto Rican residents sued, saying they were denied their right to vote.
By Anthony DeMatteo
Blues legend Willie Green, a popular North Florida performer, said he and human rights activist Stetson Kennedy are family at heart.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
By John A. Torres
Backers of a state bill that would provide a chance at freedom for children sentenced to long prison sentences are growing confident as the proposed legislation made it through a crucial Senate committee this week, further clearing the way for a possible vote by lawmakers.
By Jay Stapleton
With dozens of Florida teachers prosecuted or disciplined in recent years for having sexual encounters with their underage students -- including a handful locally -- state lawmakers are looking to enhance prison sentences for those convicted.
By Amy Sherman
Former Broward Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison Friday, officially ending his two-decade political career and marking the first punishment in a string of federal corruption probes in the county.
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