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Progress Florida -- Progressive Solutions for Florida

Monday, May 3, 2010

Daily Clips for May 3, 2010

FEATURED STORIES

Spill cutoff at least week away

The Associated Press

Miami Herald

Related: As oil blob triples in size, Florida fears nightmare

Related: Fla. declares emergency over oil spill

Related editorial: It just takes one disaster

Federal officials shut down fishing from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle on Sunday because of the uncontrolled gusher spewing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and the environmental disaster is still expected to take at least a week to cut off.


With Crist waving his veto pen, lawmakers end 2010 session

By Steve Bousquet

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Related editorial: Legislature fails to do its duty

The Florida Legislature concluded the 2010 session Friday with a tense, polarizing debate over abortion and fresh signs of Gov. Charlie Crist's willingness to criticize Republicans he once considered allies.


Intense, emotional debate over abortion measure now headed to Crist

By John Frank

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

In remarkable political theater during the waning hours of the legislative session, House Republicans rammed through a measure Friday to require women seeking an abortion to pay for an ultrasound and hear a doctor give a description of the fetus.


Crist puts Democrat Meek in play

By Jeremy Wallace

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Thanks to Charlie Crist, Kendrick Meek now has a chance.


Voters to See 3 District Mapping Issues on Ballot

By Gary Fineout

New York Times

Florida voters this fall will be asked to sort out just what kind of rules that state legislators must follow when they draw new districts for Congress and the Legislature.


Rallies urge immigration law reform

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

Angered by a controversial Arizona immigration law, tens of thousands of protesters rallied in cities nationwide demanding President Barack Obama tackle immigration reform immediately.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

Editorial cartoon of the week

By Jim Morin

Miami Herald

LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Session is over but veto looms

By Jim Ash and Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

Related editorial: Session aftermath

Sixty days of legislative action concluded Friday, overshadowed by Gov. Charlie Crist's vetoes and party denunciation.


A session assessment: For conservatives and for Crist

By Michael C. Bender and Kimberly Miller

Palm Beach Post

Related: Bills that passed in 2010 Fla. legislative session

Related: Fla. legislation that failed or was vetoed in 2010

For GOP-run legislature: Session good but not great.


Emotion stirs Florida lawmakers as final debates close session

By Brandon Larrabee

Florida Times-Union

The final gavel fell on the 2010 legislative session Friday, even as intrigue swirled about whether lawmakers could return in the summer.


Legislature Takes a Turn to The Right

By Lloyd Dunkelberger

Lakeland Ledger

With legislation on abortion, guns and school prayer, the Legislature took a strong turn to the right this year, signaling a long-term shift may be occurring in Tallahassee.


'Corruption-county' bill heads to Gov. Crist

Staff Report

Palm Beach Post

The Senate gave final approval Friday to a measure pushed by the Palm Beach County Commission that would allow counties and cities to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.


Florida Senate votes to ban sex offenders from loitering near schools, parks

By Tonya Alanez

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

State senators voted 39-0 on Friday to ban convicted sex offenders and predators from loitering or prowling within 300 feet of places where children congregate, such as schools, parks and playgrounds.

POLITICAL RACES

Charlie Crist must get out of the gate quickly -- or fade, analysts say

By Jim Stratton

Orlando Sentinel

Related: Crist - and his veto pen - still have friends in Florida politics

If the independent Senate candidacy of Gov. Charlie Crist is to become more than a historic footnote, the next three weeks will be critical, veteran political operatives said Friday.


GOP quickly exiles governor

By Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

Republican campaign aides who joined Gov. Charlie Crist's campaign when it looked like a winner abandoned his independent bid for the U.S. Senate on Friday.


Contenders in 3-way Senate race all have shot at win

By William March

Tampa Tribune

Related: Crist, Rubio take campaigns to TV shows

Charlie CristThis year's race for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat will confound the normal political wisdom on how to win a Florida election.


Crist's Flight from GOP Party Gives Hope to Democrats

The Associated Press

Lakeland Ledger

The Republican infighting over Florida's Senate seat that drove Gov. Charlie Crist to ditch the GOP is giving an underdog Democrat a realistic shot at pulling off an upset in the fall.


Independent Crist will have to tap into an unfamiliar pool of donors

By Beth Reinhard and Adam C. Smith

St. Petersburg Times

Related: LeMieux abandons Crist over nonpartisan bid

Related: Florida Gov. Crist's final 24 hours as a Republican

Related column: If it's Rubio vs. Obama, it's Crist vs. the Legislature

Even before Republican Gov. Charlie Crist launched his independent bid for the U.S. Senate, he was inviting well-heeled supporters -- many of them Democrats -- to Miami on Sunday evening to hear what could be the most important sales pitch of his career.


A liberated Crist hits Senate trail on his own

By Brendan Farrington

The Associated Press

Gov. Charlie Crist feels liberated.


Charlie's Brave New World

By Gary Fineout

Florida Tribune

Gov. Charlie Crist conceded on NBC on Sunday that he has an "uphill battle" to win the U.S. Senate race as an independent.


Rubio tempers his support for oil drilling in the Gulf

By Adam C. Smith

St. Petersburg Times

The day after he effectively locked down the GOP U.S. Senate nomination, Marco Rubio backed off his support for expanded drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and wouldn't commit to releasing state party credit card statements.


Billionaire `outsider' throws hat into Senate race

By Adam C. Smith and Beth Reinhard

Miami Herald

Just when you thought Florida's topsy-turvy election year couldn't get crazier, billionaire real estate investor Jeff Greene of Palm Beach -- a Democrat -- hurtled into Florida's already chaotic U.S. Senate race.


Billionaire Jeff Greene Will Face a Slew of Attacks in Florida's Senate Race

By Chris Good

The Atlantic

Running for Senate as a billionaire has its pluses and minuses. Jeff Greene is about to experience both.


Era of self-financed millionaire candidates begins in Florida

By Scott Hiaasen, Beth Reinhard, Adam C. Smith and Andres Viglucci

St. Petersburg Times

First it was Texas and California, then New Jersey and New York, and now Florida: Sunshine State voters, brace for bazillionaires gunning for public office.


Florida elections official Kurt Browning resigns

By Steve Bousquet

Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau

Florida's top elections official, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, abruptly resigned Friday, expressing "mixed emotions" about leaving on the last day of the legislative session.


Painting of Crist from state GOP headquarters to hit eBay

By Ray Reyes

Tampa Tribune

A one-of-a-kind oil painting of Gov. Charlie Crist, which adorned the lobby of the Republican Party of Florida's headquarters in Tallahassee as recently as yesterday, can now be yours.


13 'no party affiliate' hopefuls qualify for Congressional races

By Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

Gov. Charlie Crist officially became the nation's best-known independent candidate Friday, but he was far from being the only generic nominee hoping to go to Washington from Florida as the biennial qualifying period for Congress came to a close.


Lively House races on the ballot

By Daniel Chang and Lesley Clark

Miami Herald

A host of congressional contests officially emerged Friday, with Democrats eyeing a second chance to take one of South Florida's Cuban-American Republican seats and Republicans looking to win back two Central Florida seats.


Hernando sheriff to seek congressional seat as Ginny Brown-Waite bows out

By Tony Marrero

St. Petersburg Times

Related: Brown-Waite's affront to the voters

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite announced Friday that health problems are forcing her to drop her re-election bid for the seat she has held for eight years.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Legislature's proposed amendments offer referendum on GOP agenda

By Marc Caputo

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

When voters head to the polls Nov. 2, they'll be judging the handiwork of the Republican-led Legislature: six proposed constitutional amendments and one straw poll.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Florida prepares for oil landfall, fears the worst

By Kimberly Miller

Palm Beach Post

Related: Officials in Pensacola Bay frustrated with slow pace plan to protect delicate Florida marshes from oil spill

There is a sense of foreboding here, of sadness, and of anger, as residents of this breezy Panhandle town come to grips with what is headed their way.


Oil spill: People gather on Pensacola beach with sadness, dread

By Kevin Spear

Orlando Sentinel

Related AP story: Fishing closed in Florida Panhandle because of oil spill

Lifeguard stations flew red flags as the muddy Gulf of Mexico roiled with the color of coffee and milk Sunday, too dangerous to swim in. And yet the beach was packed and the mood was mournful and unforgiving.


Obama seeks to reassure as oil slick nears coast

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

President Barack Obama is trying to reassure fishermen and others on the Gulf Coast that the government is doing all it can as masses of oil from a pipeline rupture endanger fisheries, oyster beds and beaches.


Oil nightmare is complicated by unknowns

By Campbell Robertson and Henry Fountain

New York Times

President Barack Obama visited Louisiana on Sunday afternoon for a firsthand look at the response effort to an oil spill that he called a "potentially unprecedented environmental disaster," while officials for BP described in detail for the first time their desperate efforts to seal the gushing well.


AGs for 5 states talk legal strategy for oil spill

By Melissa Nelson

The Associated Press

The attorneys general from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas want BP PLC to sign an agreement spelling out exactly what "legitimate expenses" they'll cover from the spill.


An Oil-Driven Disaster

The Progress Report

Think Progress

On Tuesday, a sudden explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig, located 40 miles off the shore in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers.


Springs funding slashed

By Bruce Ritchie

Florida Tribune

Retired state biologist Jim Stevenson recalls springs research in 2002 that led to some interesting results for a Columbia County homeowner and for elementary school children.


Recyling bill passes along with measure allowing yard waste in landfills

By Bruce Ritchie

FloridaEnvironments.com

A bill that provides a path for the state towards reaching a 75-percent recycling goal by 2020 was adopted by the Legislature Friday and is being sent to the governor.


Florida Legislature passes energy financing measure

By Bruce Ritchie

FloridaEnvironments.com

A bill that supporters said would establish an innovative renewable energy program in Florida passed the Legislature, but another bill that would have encouraged utilities to buy more renewable energy failed.


Response hasn't matched spill

Editorial

Palm Beach Post

President Obama followed up a bad policy decision on offshore drilling with a slow response to a drilling accident that could cause an environmental disaster.


Reduce risks of drilling

Editorial

Orlando Sentinel

Five thousand barrels of oil -- more than 200,000 gallons -- continue to escape each day from a breached pipeline off the coast of Louisiana, along with this dose of reality: Drilling is not safe.

EDUCATION

Schools say lawmakers boasts over state budget won't save cuts

By Patricia Mazzei

Miami Herald

State lawmakers have boasted that their education budget holds public school funding steady -- but don't tell that to leaders in the Miami-Dade and Broward school districts who are scrambling to avoid millions in painful cuts.


Class-size amendment might squeeze choice plans

By Sherri Ackerman

Tampa Tribune

Voters will decide in November whether to pass an amendment loosening new class-size restrictions in public schools.


Attitude change needed towards education

Editorial

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

It's not like there is a silver bullet solution to the cuts facing teachers and school staffs.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida expects $6 billion hole in budget in 2011

By Mary Ellen Klas

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

The oil rig explosion that threatens the Gulf of Mexico also rocked the carefully crafted agenda of the Florida Legislature's incoming leaders.


Florida lawmakers balance budget with cuts, gaming money

By Catherine Whittenburg

Tampa Tribune

They boosted funds for higher education, but hiked tuition to do it.


State worker layoffs spared in budget for now

By Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

State employees won't face massive layoffs or salary reductions under the $70 billion budget Florida lawmakers approved on the final day of the legislative session.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Crist says Florida won't run high-risk health insurance pool

By Fred Tasker

Miami Herald

Gov. Charlie Crist will leave it to President Barack Obama's administration to run the federally subsidized high-risk health insurance plan that is to cover people unable to buy such insurance in the private market due to pre-existing conditions such as cancer or diabetes.


It's illegal, but desperate Americans are buying drugs online from Canada

By Fernando Quintero

Orlando Sentinel

The high cost of prescription drugs has left many Central Floridians scrambling for ways to afford their medications. But for Anita Prager of Apopka, cheaper meds are just a mouse click away.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Protestors rally downtown for immigration reform

By Christina Veiga

Miami Herald
A small voice stood out among the chants and shouts of protesters who gathered Saturday in downtown Miami to recognize May Day and push for immigration reform.

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