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Progress Florida -- Progressive Solutions for Florida

Monday, April 26, 2010

Progress Florida Daily Clips for April 23, 2010

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

McCollum's Lawsuit Wastes Taxpayer Money

By Vicki Impoco

Florida Today

On Tuesday Progress Florida delivered a 60 Ft. long petition signed by thousands of Floridians and a coalition of nearly forty different organizations to Attorney General Bill McCollum's office demanding that he drop his taxpayer funded lawsuit against health care reform. McCollum is leading the effort to overturn health reform with a lawsuit paid for with our tax dollars.


20 Yards Of Anger At Attorney General

By Daniel Tilson

West Palm Beach Liberal Examiner

An alliance of forty advocacy groups representing half-a-million Floridians delivered a message to the state's Attorney General on Tuesday, a response to his taxpayer-financed lawsuit that could roll back all the good that new federal health reforms will do for millions of men, women and children - as well as having other, even worse, unintended consequences.

FEATURED STORIES

Crist, GOP moving closer to a political break-up

By Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Republican Party moved closer to political divorce Thursday, with the party warning that it can expel any GOP activists who back an independent candidate and the governor saying he has no obligation to refund campaign contributions to Republicans who demand their money back.


Facing GOP headwinds, Crist keeps party guessing whether he'll run as independent

By Michael C. Bender

Palm Beach Post

Pressure mounted Thursday on Gov. Charlie Crist to say whether he'll stay in the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate.


Former state GOP head averaged $15,000+ a month on AmEx

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

Former state GOP chairman Jim Greer knew how to travel in style, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges in places like Key West, New York, Las Vegas, Beverly Hills, Calif. and beyond, including trips where he joined Gov. Charlie Crist at out-of-state fund-raisers for his Senate campaign.


House passes opt-out proposal

By Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

Plunging into the debate about federal health reform, the state House approved a measure today aimed at preventing Floridians from being required to buy health insurance.


Offshore oil-rig disaster concerns Fla. lawmakers

By Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

Related AP story: Oil rig blast prompts environmental concerns

The flaming collapse of an offshore oil rig near Louisiana is having an impact on the perennial coastal oil-drilling issue in the Florida Legislature.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

The six questions Crist must ask himself right now about the NPA bid

By Steve Schale

Steve Schale

By calling reporters tonight, Crist finally admitted that he is opening the door to running for something other than as a Republican for United States Senate.


John Thrasher: SB6 sponsor AND testing company lobbyist?

By Joy Reid

The Reid Report

Hat tip to Peter Schorsch, who links to a piece in the The St. Augustine Record, which raises questions about State Sen. John Thrasher's ties to lobbying firms who you'd think might have a vested interest in expanding high stakes testing in Florida.


Health Care's SB 6 Passes The House

By Ray Seaman

Progress Florida

The Florida House voted to privatize a large portion of Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, yesterday.


American Express: 'Don't Leave for Prison Without It'

By Beach Blogger

Pensacola Beach Blog

The big news in Florida today is that the IRS, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the North District of Florida in Tallahassee, and the FBI are investigating top officials of the Florida Republican Party, including the leading Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio, "to determine whether they misused their party credit cards for personal expenses."


Hey Florida Tea Party Activists: are you paying attention to what Republican legislators in Tallahassee are doing?

By Gimleteye

Eye on Miami

It comes every single legislative session: the last minute midnight attacks on the will of the people as expressed by one piece or another of legislation.

LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Sansom scandal's legacy on display at more open legislative budget hearing

By Steve Bousquet and Lee Logan

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

The long shadow cast by Ray Sansom over legislative budget writing gave way to unprecedented sunlight Thursday.


Senators advance ethics bill addressing no-bid contracts and graft

By Mary Ellen Klas

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

A Senate committee Thursday unveiled a late-session compromise for dealing with public corruption, wrapping together a bill to crack down on public officials who use their offices for private gain with a measure to impose new restrictions on no-bid contracts in state government.


Senate cuts library funding by $8 million in budget talks with House

The News Service of Florida

Palm Beach Post

The Senate scaled back its pitch for library dollars while the economic development money remained a sticking point Thursday with House budget-writers.


Prompted by multi-million-dollar payday, legislature appears ready to OK red-light cameras

By Dara Kam

Palm Beach Post

Lawmakers are ready to give the green light to red-light cameras, setting out a uniform state code for the controversial ticket machines that could be a money maker for cities, counties and the state.


GOP senators fight over insurance, virtual schools

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

Florida Republicans are having a tough time agreeing on things as the 2010 legislative session winds down.


Senate passes bill making slaughter of horses a felony

By Robert Samuels

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Without a single legislator voting "nay," a bill toughening laws against those who butcher horses or sell or purchase their meat is galloping to the desk of Gov. Charlie Crist.

POLITICAL RACES

George LeMieux in awkward spot over Charlie Crist's Senate decision

By Alex Leary

St. Petersburg Times

For once, George LeMieux did not want to play the analyst. The subject was how Charlie Crist would do as an independent candidate in the U.S. Senate race.


GOP Senate hopeful in Fla. is the Teflon candidate

By Brendan Farrington

The Associated Press

Senate hopeful Marco Rubio, the new darling of the tea-party movement, finds himself caught up in a federal investigation into alleged credit-card abuses by top Florida Republicans.


GOP loyalty memo warns against backing Crist

By Lloyd Dunkelberger

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The Republican hierarchy tightened the grip on Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday, with a new memo threatening officials with the loss of their party posts if they support Crist's bid for the U.S. Senate as an independent candidate.


Rubio stops in Daytona Beach today

By Cal Massey

Daytona Beach News-Journal

Fresh off an endorsement from former Vice President Dick Cheney, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio swings through Daytona Beach today for a sold-out luncheon at LPGA International restaurant.


Former Florida Sen. Dan Webster challenges Alan Grayson

By David Damron

Orlando Sentinel

With 200-plus supporters on a grass field next to his church Thursday, former state Sen. Dan Webster said he is running against Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson.


Florida House bill relaxes campaign disclaimer rules for social sites

By John Frank

St. Petersburg Times

It's not easy to put a political campaign disclaimer on a tweet.


Volusia, Hispanic group reach deal on ballots

By Frank Fernadez

Daytona Beach News-Journal

Volusia County and a Hispanic group have settled a lawsuit over bilingual ballots but not necessarily who's to blame for the costly legal fight.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Florida voters face lengthy list of constitutional amendments

By Josh Hafenbrack

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

When Floridians head to the polls in November, they'll face a lengthy and confusing array of constitutional amendments dealing with everything from property taxes to classroom sizes - tying the longest ballot in a decade.


Redistricting measure splitting black caucus

By Brandon Larrabee

Florida Times-Union

A new redistricting proposal working its way through the Senate is dividing minority lawmakers and the Florida Legislative Black Caucus.


Gerrymandering Amendments, Amendments

By Whitney Ray

Capitol News Service

Two proposed constitutional amendments that would make Florida elections more competitive are being challenged by the state legislature.


House OKs U.S. Budget Vote

By Bill Kaczor

The Associated Press

The Republican-controlled Legislature wants Florida voters to tell Washington it should balance the federal budget but do it without raising taxes.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

PSC overhaul moderated in compromise House bill

By Mary Ellen Klas

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

After meeting resistance from the governor and Senate, the House on Thursday backed off a sweeping plan to overhaul the Public Service Commission and instead proposed a plan to study the structure of the utility regulation board.


Water bill amended to address DEP concerns, senator says

By Bruce Ritchie

FloridaEnvironments.com

A far-reaching Senate water bill will be amended to address concerns raised by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the bill's sponsor said Thursday.


State focuses on Flagler manatee protection

By Dinah Voyles Pulver

Daytona Beach News-Journal

Under orders from state wildlife officials, Flagler County must put together a citizens advisory committee to help determine whether new boat speed limits should be imposed in sections of the Intracoastal Waterway.


State college smashes world recycling record

By Billy Cox

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

State College of Florida probably crushed the record for collecting the most number of plastic bottles with the first load of the morning.


Another dirty trick

Editorial

Miami Herald

Here's a lesson for middle-school students who will be required to take civics classes under a proposed law headed to the governor: Look out for closed-door shenanigans when a law gets passed -- or not -- in Tallahassee.


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.

EDUCATION

Crist Signs Private-School Voucher Expansion Into Law

By Ron Matus, Jeffrey S. Solochek and Steve Bousquet

St. Petersburg Times

With solid bipartisan support, Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday ushered in the most sweeping expansion of private-school vouchers in Florida history.


Could changes to Bright Futures scholarships hurt college hopes of many?

By Luis Zaragoza

Orlando Sentinel

It used to be you couldn't even whisper about messing with the rules that shape Florida's generous Bright Futures merit scholarships for fear of setting off students and parents in love with the idea of free and fairly easy college money.


Campus projects at issue

By Paul Flemming

Tallahassee Democrat

Billions apart on a state spending plan, House and Senate budget chiefs held a public meeting to air the hundreds of millions that separate the two chambers on building projects at state universities and colleges.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Hurricane insurance reform loses momentum

The Associated Press

Palm Beach Post

Property insurance reform has eluded state lawmakers for several years, and it seems as if it could slip out of their grasp this year as well


Foreclosure mill's revenue skyrockets

By Michael Sasso

Tampa Tribune

The housing crisis has been good for Florida's biggest processor of foreclosure lawsuits: Its revenue has multiplied sixfold since the housing bust began.


Census return rates for Florida are in

By Gregory Lewis

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Thursday was the day the U.S. Census Bureau declared the drop-dead deadline for returning household survey forms.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Nurses Unhappy About Medicaid Bill Take a Cue from Teachers

By Gina Jordan

WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee

Nurses hope Governor Charlie Crist will listen to them as he listened to teachers and veto the Medicaid bill moving through both chambers. Gina Jordan reports they wore scrubs and carried banners as they shared their concerns with lawmakers at the Capitol Thursday.


Nursing homes face 7% cut

By Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

Florida House and Senate negotiators appear ready to slash Medicaid funding for nursing homes and are considering cuts to numerous other health programs to balance the budget.


Legislation would force elderly into managed care to trim Medicaid costs

By Stephen Nohlgren

St. Petersburg Times

Elderly Floridians who want to stay out of nursing homes would be forced into managed care under two bills passed this week by the House in an effort to pare Medicaid costs.


In U.S. House, the daughter of a Cape Coral couple tries for drywall help

By Denes Husty

Ft. Myers News-Press

Joyce and Richard DeFrancesco believed they bought their dream house when they moved to Cape Coral in 2006.

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