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Progress Florida -- Progressive Solutions for Florida

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Daily Clips for May 6, 2010

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Crist bombarded with abortion pleas

By Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

Excerpt: Stephanie Kunkel, director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said her group is working with the American Civil Liberties Union and Progress Florida to urge opponents of the bill to contact the governor's office and push for a veto. She said people are "outraged'' by the measure and that opponents will continue ramping up efforts to influence Crist's decision.

FEATURED STORIES

Floridians can expect oil sheen to creep in

By Jim Ash

Tallahassee Democrat

Related: Oil could cause 'catastrophic' wildlife damage

Related: Nelson urges more economic compensation

Related: Sink irked with slow turnaround on oil-spill response plans

Related editorial: Rethinking drilling

The image is inescapable whenever an oil spill makes headlines -- a solid wave of black goo pouring from the crippled Exxon Valdez.


Boat with containment box at oil site

The Associated Press

St. Petersburg Times

Related: Despite flashes of outrage, no definitive retreat from drilling in Washington

A boat carrying a 100-ton concrete-and-steel contraption designed to siphon off the oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico arrived Thursday at the spot in the sea where a blown-out well is spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons a day.


Drill ban could rattle Fla. Senate race

By David Cantanese

Politico

A group of Florida Democratic legislators are expected to ask Gov. Charlie Crist to call a special session to take up a constitutional amendment banning drilling near the state's shoreline.


Abortion veto choice is defining, or redefining, moment for Charlie Crist

By John Frank

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Related: Abortion description law worries doctors, politicians

Facing an intense public outcry, Charlie Crist confronts possibly the toughest decision of his term as governor: whether to sign or veto a bill antiabortion advocates call the "most significant pro-life measure that's ever happened in Florida's history."

FLORIDA POLITICS

Oil drilling becomes issue in U.S. Senate race

By Lesley Clark

Miami Herald

Rep. Kendrick Meek Wednesday backed two tough anti-oil industry bills, as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico began to emerge as a political dividing line in the U.S. Senate race.


Crist and Seminoles celebrate as he symbolically signs gambling pact

By Michael Vasquez

Miami Herald

If the Seminole Tribe of Florida included millions of members, as opposed to its actual 3,200 or so members, Gov. Charlie Crist might well be a shoo-in for U.S. Senate.


Thrasher turning up heat on Crist

By David Hunt

Florida Times-Union

With the 2010 Florida legislative session complete, Gov. Charlie Crist has a desk full of bills and an influential legislator in charge of the Republican Party that's analyzing his every move


Why the state Legislature failed to pass a law banning bestiality

By Cristina Silva

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

From every angle, a ban on animal bestiality, long pushed by state prosecutors and animal rights activists, seemed poised to finally become law this year, with Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of the Florida Legislature joining forces to push it through.


Crack down on corruption next year

Editorial

Orlando Sentinel

With the plague of official corruption that has infected Florida in recent years, it's disconcerting that a majority of state legislators couldn't agree on a series of antidotes before their regular session ended last week.

POLITICAL RACES

Senate campaign trail heats as Seminoles thank Crist, and Jeb Bush endorses Rubio

By George Bennett and Michael C. Bender

Palm Beach Post

The race to define Gov. Charlie Crist's once unlikely independent campaign escalated Wednesday as gambling enthusiasts offered their help while scorned Republicans attempted to drain Crist's hefty campaign account.


Will teachers' union abandon Kendrick Meek for Charlie?

By Mike Thomas

Orlando Sentinel

The Florida Education Association - the state teachers' union - is running an ad for Charlie Crist. It doesn't mention the Senate race, but it's obvious this is political payback for Charlie vetoing a merit pay bill.


GOP members to Fla. Gov. Crist: Return our money

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

Twenty prominent Republicans demanded That Gov. Charlie Crist return every penny that some of them gave to his Senate campaign, saying he broke donors' trust when he decided to run as an independent.


EBay pulls Crist portrait sale, then it resumes

By William March and Jose Patino Girona

Tampa Tribune

Trying to unload an oil painting of Gov. Charlie Crist seems to have gotten mired in, well, politics.


Burns drops out of U.S. Senate race to run for state seat

By Beth Reinhard

Miami Herald

Squeezed out of a U.S. Senate race dominated by political heavyweights, former North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns said Wednesday that he would run for the state Senate instead.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Clarifying or Undermining Fair Districts? Voters Decide in November

By Lisa Marzilli

Creative Loafing

With Friday's passage of yet a third redistricting amendment, GOP legislators in Tallahassee hope to undermine the will of 1. 7 million Floridians who are demanding fairer elections.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Gulf currents carry fate of coasts

By Kate Spinner

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Related: Florida is on high alert and preparing defenses

As a growing oil slick looms in the Gulf of Mexico, the health of Florida's coastline depends on the weather and the currents.


Cannon says Florida drilling 'permanently tabled'

By Beth Kassab

Orlando Sentinel

Future House Speaker Dean Cannon, the driving force behind a push to open Florida waters to oil drilling, said late Tuesday he considered the matter "permanently tabled" in light of the growing spill in the Gulf of Mexico that he called a "game changer."


Haridopolos says opening state to drilling should be dead issue in wake of oil catastrophe in gulf

By Jim Turner

TC Palm

Opening Florida's waters to oil drilling should be considered a dead issue in the next legislative session due to the growing spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the future state Senate president said Wednesday.


Gulf oil spill puts a fragile world in peril

By Curtis Morgan and Joseph Goodman

Miami Herald

Related: Big stakes over mining the deep for oil

Linked to the Gulf of Mexico by two passes around Shell Island, St. Andrews Bay opens up just inland from the hilly dunes and soft sand of the coast.


"Unprecedented Crisis:" Bird's Eye View of Gulf Oil Spill Fl Bound

By Gina Presson

Public News Service Florida

While workers prepare for the first of the oil from the BP rig spill to reach Florida's beaches later this week, Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and BP CFO Alex Sink flew above the slick to get a closer look.


Florida's natural treasures hang in balance as oil spill looms

By Kevin Spear

Orlando Sentinel

Executives for the oil company trying to plug a well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico provided new details Wednesday of a planned operation so untested they aren't predicting its chances of success.


Legislation seeks to hold oil companies accountable for spills

By Derek Catron

Daytona Beach News-Journal

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Democrat from New Smyrna Beach, joined her House colleagues Wednesday in introducing legislation that would ensure oil companies are held accountable for paying economic damages resulting from spills.


Levy nuclear plant pushed back

By Fred Hiers

Gainesville Sun

Progress Energy Florida is asking Florida regulators for permission to cut its customers' nuclear recovery costs next year by 21 percent, reducing the average nuclear cost of $6.99 per month on customer monthly bills down to $5.53.


Biomass plants face more delays

By Bruce Ritchie

FloridaEnvironments.com

A proposed biomass gas electric plant in Port St. Joe will be delayed by 18 months because of siting difficulties, according to Progress Energy.


PSC moving forward with limited reforms

By Bruce Ritchie

FloridaEnvironments.com

The Florida Public Service Commission is moving forward with rules to define prohibited "ex parte" communications. Bills to define such prohibited communications in commission failed to win legislative approval.

LGBT

Antigay activist took trip with male 'assistant'

By Steve Rothaus

Miami Herald

A nationally known antigay psychologist who testified for the state in its defense of Florida's gay-adoption ban recently took a trip to Europe with a gay male prostitute from Miami who advertised himself online.

EDUCATION

A half-hearted education budget

Editorial

Ocala Star-Banner

To hear Tallahassee tell it, public education was the big winner in this year's legislative session.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Cities, counties, state poised to tap red-light-camera cash

By Dan Tracy

Orlando Sentinel

Millions of dollars already have been made by red-light cameras, and even more money appears to be on the way for governments and private companies that operate the systems at intersections throughout Florida.


Lawmaker urges Crist to help state workers

By Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

A House member whose district includes thousands of state employees urged Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday to veto "de facto pay cuts" in the state budget.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Dockery: Abortion Bill Ripe for Veto

By Scott Finn

WUSF Public Radio Tampa

State Sen. and GOP-gubernatorial candidate Paula Dockery says a controversial bill requiring an ultrasound before an abortion is "ripe for a governor's veto" - even though she voted for the bill.


Who killed 'medical home' bill?

By Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

Some ideas, such as overhauling the Medicaid system, fizzled publicly. Others faded away quietly in the committee rooms, chambers and offices of the state Capitol, well before the 2010 legislative session ended last week.


Florida Seniors the Focus During Women's Health Month

By Gina Jordan

WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee

The growing needs of Florida's female residents, especially those over age sixty, are the focus of a campaign by two state agencies.


Insurers can't comply, official says

By Carol Gentry

Health News Florida

A "huge" number of insurance products being sold in Florida fail to meet spending requirements under the new federal health law, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said at a public hearing in Orlando on Tuesday.


Crack down on Florida's pain clinics at state and local levels

Staff Report

St. Petersburg Times

Every day in Florida, six people die of prescription drug overdoses.

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