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Progress Florida -- Progressive Solutions for Florida

Monday, April 26, 2010

Progress Florida Daily Clips 4-26-10

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Senator Nelson calls for investigation of oil drilling safety

By Sean Kinane

WMNF Community Radio Tampa

Excerpt: The group Progress Florida is opposed to expanded fossil fuel drilling off the coast of Florida. Their executive director, Mark Ferrulo, says "we hope our Legislators are paying attention."

FEATURED STORIES

Plans to Battle Oil Spill in Gulf

By Campbell Robertson and Leslie Kaufman

New York Times

Officials worked Sunday to try to stop oil leaks coming from the deepwater well drilled by a rig that sank last week near Louisiana, but they acknowledged that it could be months before they are able to stem the flow of what is now about 42,000 gallons of oil a day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.


The rise and fall of Charlie Crist

By Adam C. Smith and Steve Bousquet

St. Petersburg Times

Related: At a political crossroad, Crist is front and center

Related: A seismic shift for Charlie Crist

Related: Crist's firm 'no' on independent Senate run morphs into 'maybe'

Related: An interactive look at Gov. Crist's past year

Charlie Crist, once Florida's spectacularly popular governor, now on the cusp of seeing his political career washed up?


Florida Republican Party to reveal its big credit-card spenders

By Mary Ellen Klas

Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau

Related: Florida GOP exiles Jim Greer, saying he 'injured the name and status' of the party

Related: Jim Greer's high-flown toils for the GOP

In an attempt to end the turmoil within the embattled Florida Republican Party, its leaders agreed Friday to disclose three years of credit-card statements detailing the spending habits of elected officials and staffers under ousted party chairman Jim Greer.


Lawmakers in Legislature scramble as session nears an end

By Aaron Deslatte

Orlando Sentinel

Florida lawmakers are set to close a 60-day session dominated by election-year rancor, symbolic appeals to anti- Barack Obama voters, and a civil war that has pitted Republicans against their own governor.


Medicaid overhaul dies

By Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

With differences remaining between the House and Senate --- and a possible veto by Gov. Charlie Crist looming --- an overhaul of Florida's Medicaid system will not pass this year, legislative leaders said today.


Playing games with DCA

Editorial

Tampa Tribune

The Florida House of Representatives leadership is holding the state's lead planning agency hostage in the waning days of the session.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK


Editorial cartoon of the week


By Jim Morin

Miami Herald

LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Florida jobs still focus as legislative session nears end

By John Frank

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Related: In Tallahassee today, final week begins will all eyes on Gov. Crist

Expect the 60-day legislative session to end this week much in the same way it began: focused on the economy.


Healthcare issues key focus

By Marc Caputo and Steve Bousquet

Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau

Trimming healthcare and road projects, Florida lawmakers Sunday put some final touches on next year's $69 billion-plus state budget, but not before they tried to help influential hospitals in Miami, Tampa Bay and Gainesville.


State-worker pay undecided

By Jim Ash

Tallahassee Democrat

A day of final reconciliation by House and Senate leaders awaits after negotiators moved closer Sunday to crafting a $69-billion spending plan in time for a Friday deadline to adjourn.


Thrasher camp calls ethics complaint 'politically motivated'

By Matt Dixon

Florida Times-Union

A former educator says that because a firm where state Sen. John Thrasher worked received up to $190,000 to lobby for educational testing companies, the St. Augustine Republican's recent push for more state standardized tests is a conflict of interest.


Florida House approves red light cameras, has designs on the fines

By John Frank

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

The legislative debate Friday about red light cameras pitted public safety against an Orwellian nightmare.


Senate passes amended insurance reform bill

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

The Florida Senate has got its property insurance reform bill back on the track.


The secrets of transparency, and the son of SB 6

By Brandon Larrabee

Florida Times-Union

This was to be the session of unprecedented transparency on state budget negotiations, in part because of the indictment of now-former House Speaker Ray Sansom related to accusations he manipulated the state's higher education budget.


Feds Ask Questions about Prison Deal

By Whitney Ray

Capitol News Service

The FBI is asking question about former House Speaker Ray Sansom's involvement with a legislative deal to build a private prison.


Lawmaking at its 'worst'

By Denise Layne

Tampa Tribune

After 12 years of being involved with growth management issues in Florida, I think this legislative session has got to be the worst.


The do-nothings

By Brad Rogers

Ocala Star-Banner

With a week to go, the Florida Legislature is trying to wrap things up.

POLITICAL RACES

Florida waits to see whether Crist will stay Republican or go independent

By Dan Balz

Washington Post

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has become the star of his own personal soap opera.


If Crist runs for Senate as independent, will fundraisers flee?

By Jim Stratton

Orlando Sentinel

If Gov. Charlie Crist surprises no one and announces next week that he'll mount an independent bid for U.S. Senate, a lot of his Republican friends and financiers will face an ugly choice.


Crist decision could fracture GOP grip on Florida

By Jeremy Wallace and Anna Scott

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

After a week of feuding in Florida's Capitol, the likes of which have rarely been seen between a sitting governor and his own party, this much seems clear: The state GOP is no longer a place where Gov. Charlie Crist can co-exist with his party's leaders.


Masterstrokes: The RPOF oil paintings of Charlie Crist, Greer, Delmar

By Marc Caputo

St. Petersburg Times

Nothing illustrates questionable spending at the Republican Party of Florida like the $7,500 for oil paintings of Gov. Charlie Crist and ousted Chairman Jim Greer.


Potential clouds over Fla. Senate front-runner

By Martin Merzer

The Associated Press

Now that Republicans have made him the U.S. Senate front-runner, Marco Rubio is trying to weather potentially damaging revelations about his credit card use, double billing for airfare and murky finances.


As Republican party's pariah, Crist still burnishes populist creds

By Michael C. Bender

Palm Beach Post

While Gov. Charlie Crist's top legislative priorities hang in the balance of the final days of the legislative session, Republican lawmakers already may have helped polish one of his biggest political assets: his populism.


Rubio rocks Daytona luncheon

By Derek Catron

Daytona Beach News-Journal

He may not have any chart-topping hits, but Marco Rubio got the rock star treatment in Daytona Beach on Friday.


Candidates for governor differ over education reform

By Ron Word

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The two front-runners in the race for governor were on opposite sides of the recent legislative fight over education reform, and their positions could affect who is elected to replace incumbent Charlie Crist.


Rick Scott for Florida governor? Can Naples man overcome late start, Columbia/HCA fall?

By Liz Freeman

Naples Daily News

Florida residents can quickly become familiar with Rick Scott if they don't know anything about him already.


Tobia's exam-credit may lead to complaint

By Jeff Schweers

Florida Today

John Tobia offered his political science students at Valencia Community College in Kissimmee an option when he ran for state representative two years ago: If they volunteered on his campaign, they could skip the final exam.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Don't water down hope for fair districts

By Leon W. Russell, Nicholas Stephanopoulos and J. Gerald Hebert

Tallahassee Democrat

The gerrymander -- that ugly but all-too-common creature -- has thrived in Florida for years.


Gerrymandering protection bill self-serving

By Fred Grimm

Miami Herald

Senate District 26 suggests a Rorschach test gone bad -- a fat blob occupying a big chunk of rural Central Florida with odd protuberances, including an appendage that juts toward the Atlantic Ocean, veers sharply north, then devours most of the Space Coast.


Show business

Editorial

Gainesville Sun

There's a whole lot of show business going on in Tallahassee as lawmakers prepare for a monster election.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Recent disaster shows dangers of oil drilling in Gulf of Mexico

By Kevin Spear

Orlando Sentinel

Workers in pursuit of oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico have been dying in accidents at the rate of one every 45 days since the mid-1990s.


Gulf oil spill worrisome for the Florida Keys

By Kevin Wadlow

Florida Keys Keynoter

Whatever oil leaks from the remains of a deepwater oil-drilling rig that sank Thursday off Louisiana could be headed toward the Florida Keys.


Gulf rig explosion 'heard' in Florida as officials ponder Atlantic oil exploration

By Christine Stapleton

Palm Beach Post

As the drilling rig Horizon burned on the oily surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a small group of environmentalists, government officials and oil speculators gathered at a hotel in Jacksonville to discuss environmental impact of offshore drilling -- in the Atlantic Ocean.


Florida key to success of Obama's energy bill

By Zac Anderson

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Katy Swanson has her response down pat when people ask about oil drilling off the Florida coast.


Offshore Drilling Faces New Skepticism

By Bobbie O'Brien

WUSF Public Radio Tampa

The explosion and collapse of an oil rig in the off Louisiana's coastline has U.S. Senator Bill Nelson calling for a congressional investigation.


Oil spill just one reason for accurate Gulf weather report

By Phil Lewis

Naples Daily News

Our newsroom can expect a series of emergency alerts from weather forecasters when the tropics spawn hurricanes each year.


FPL executive has meetings with key state officials

By Julie Patel

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Florida Power & Light Co. employs three lobbyists in Tallahassee, has 22 more who were paid at least $221,000 combined in the last quarter of 2009 and donates to state political parties -- more than $670,000 in the past 15 months.


House, Senate close on septic tank language

By Bruce Ritchie

FloridaEnvironments.com

House and Senate budget negotiators on Sunday remained in disagreement on language that prohibits state agencies from requiring advanced septic tanks for another year.


A shameful record on protecting the panther

Editorial

St. Petersburg Times

The federal government's shameful record of protecting the Florida panther is leading the state's official animal straight to its extinction.


See? Keep the rigs far away: Explosion in the gulf should be warning to Florida

Editorial

Palm Beach Post

Last week's explosion of an oil rig off the Louisiana coast undercuts every argument in favor of allowing oil and natural gas drilling much closer to the Florida coast.


We don't want an oil rig disaster here

Editorial

St. Petersburg Times

The events this week on Deepwater Horizon oil rig, about 50 miles off Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, should scuttle for good talk of lifting drilling bans in state and federal waters off Florida's coast.


The big lie about drilling for oil

Editorial

Tampa Tribune

The tragic explosion of a drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana exposes the big lie espoused by the oil industry and its minions in the Florida Legislature: Modern drilling is harmless.

EDUCATION

Florida budget spares higher ed

By Doug Blackburn

Tallahassee Democrat

Administrators at Florida State University, Florida A&M University and other schools in the State University System are breathing a collective sigh of relief as the Legislature closes in on a final budget.


Graham group continuing Fla. university lawsuit

By Bill Kaczor

The Associated Press

A group including former Gov. and ex-U.S. Sen. Bob Graham will continue a lawsuit challenging the Legislature's authority to set tuition at state universities, although one of its partners has withdrawn.


Teachers and sex: Scores in Florida have lost jobs due to improper conduct with students

By Sally Kestin and Dana Williams

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The events that turned a Tamarac family upside down began with a mother's discovery of a love letter to her 17-year-old son.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

State workers may be asked to pay for sagging Florida retirement system

By Adam Playford and Pat Beall

Palm Beach Post

The squeeze is on: For the first time in more than a decade, the Florida Retirement System no longer has 100 percent of what is needed to pay all current and expected retiree benefits.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

US says FL can't opt out

By Carol Gentry and Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

Only hours after the Florida House and Senate voted to "opt out" of the new federal health law, the top U.S. health official said Thursday night that will not be permitted.


Sponsors say Fla. Medicaid overhaul dead for 2010

By Bill Kaczor

The Associated Press

Sponsors of a massive House plan to overhaul Florida's Medicaid system on Sunday declared it dead for this year but said they'll try again in 2011.


Mental-health programs, drug treatment on Fla. budget chopping block

By Jim Ash

Tallahassee Democrat

Thousands more addicts and mental patients could begin streaming into emergency rooms and jails under a Senate proposal to slash $14.6 million in local substance abuse and mental-health programs, advocates warned on Friday.


DOH-shrinking in budget talks

By Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

Unable to get the Senate to take up a normal bill to reorganize the state Department of Health, House leaders are trying a new strategy: Get the controversial reorganization added to a must-pass budget bill.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Empty Panhandle prison will be opened as part of Florida budget deals

By Steve Bousquet and Marc Caputo

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau A costly private prison in the Florida Panhandle will belatedly open this summer following a series of budget deals struck Saturday by key lawmakers, working to complete action on a new state budget.

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