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Progress Florida -- Progressive Solutions for Florida

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Daily Clips for June 10, 2010

FEATURED STORIES

Florida emergency officals go into battle mode as heavier oil hits Panhandle

By Dara Kam

Palm Beach Post

Related: Poll: Floridians change minds on Gulf drilling; majority now opposed

Oil washed Wednesday into the mouth of the Perdido River that separates Florida and Alabama, staining plastic boom that appeared to do nothing to protect inland waters from being polluted with the greasy fluid.


Task force hears complaints about BP's oil spill response

By Jim Ash

Tallahassee Democrat

Related: Oil spill response received differently in Escambia, Santa Rosa counties

A high-level task force of lawmakers, agency heads, local officials and industry representatives met for the first time Wednesday to begin charting Florida's recovery from the Deepwater Horizon spill.


Poll: Crist leads three-way race; Floridians disapprove of Obama's oil spill response

By Lee Logan

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Five weeks after bailing on the Republican Party to run as an independent, Gov. Charlie Crist leads the three-way race for the Senate in a new Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters, while both of the Republican contenders for governor lead likely Democratic nominee Alex Sink.


Crist should veto ultrasound bill

Editorial

St. Petersburg Times

Abortion-rights opponents have spent weeks pressuring Gov. Charlie Crist to sign legislation that would require all women seeking a first trimester abortion to submit to an ultrasound.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Fla. Panhandle property appraisers want special legislative session on oil-spill crisis

By The Associated Press

Palm Beach Post

Some advocates are calling for Florida legislators to allow tax appraisers to lower Gulf Coast property values immediately because of the BP oil spill.


Young Hispanics favor Obama, but most not aligned to any political ideology, poll shows

By Carrie Wells

Miami Herald

More than half of the nation's young Hispanic voters do not identify themselves as liberal or conservative, though almost three in four say Democratic President Barack Obama is doing a good job, a poll released Wednesday shows.

POLITICAL RACES

Poll: Chiles' Gubernatorial Candidacy Hurts Alex Sink

By Kathleen Haughney

News Service of Florida

A three-way gubernatorial contest could doom state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's chances to win the governor's race, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.


Scott leading McCollum in GOP governor's primary

The Associated Press

Miami Herald

A poll released Thursday shows Naples millionaire businessman Rick Scott leading Attorney General Bill McCollum in the race for the Republican nomination for governor.


Bias against Democrats

By Kendrick Meek

Orlando Sentinel

Mike Thomas is no fan of Democrats. His strong biases are often on display.


Senate candidate Maurice Ferre advocates capping Medicare spending on end-of-life care for elderly

By George Bennett

Palm Beach Post

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Maurice Ferre says the U.S. spends an "absurd" amount on end-of-life care and should gradually move to a universal health system in which the government controls costs by setting prices for medical procedures and capping expenditures based on age and medical condition.


Florida AG candidate focuses on health care lawsuit

By David Hunt

Florida Times-Union

Holly Benson, a former state legislator who's running for state attorney general, is structuring her Republican primary race around the state's lawsuit to block federal health care reform.


What Florida can learn

By Joy-Ann Reid

Miami Herald

From Arkansas to California, Tuesday's primaries could hold lessons for Florida.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Business leaders, neighborhood activists clash over ballot issue on growth

By Scott Wyman

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

As powerful business executives gathered Wednesday at a posh downtown restaurant to raise money to fight a ballot initiative that requires public votes on development, slow-growth activists picketed outside.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

U.S. setting up Miami base to monitor oil spill

By Susan Miller Degnan

Miami Herald

Related: BP weighing hundreds of oil spill options

With an enormous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico edging toward Florida, the federal government is setting up a base of operations in downtown Miami to oversee a state crisis response.


Group makes snapper ban stick

By Jim Waymer

Florida Today

Despite angry calls from fishermen about bad science and ruined livelihoods, fishery managers went ahead Wednesday with a long-term ban on red snapper fishing.


Utilities have talked to Public Service Commission nominees

By Mary Ellen Klas

Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times

Florida's largest utility companies say they are hands off when it comes to the selection of two new utility regulators to replace the men who voted against the largest rate case in Florida history.


Decision Today on EPA Greenhouse Gas Jurisdiction

By Gina Presson

Public News Service Florida

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's resolution to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, is set for a vote on the floor of the Senate today.


BP's experiment

Editorial

Gainesville Sun

The federal government needs to take control of BP's potentially dangerous experiment in the use of massive amounts of toxic chemicals to disperse the raging Gulf oil spill.


BP should come clean about threat

Editorial

Tampa Tribune

BP, after originally calling the Deepwater Horizon oil leak minor, then low-balling the amount of oil spewing from its well, now denies the existence of undersea oil plumes.


Wetlands off limits

Editorial

Florida Today

Too often, terrible ideas aren't put out of their misery in government.

EDUCATION

Company responsible for delay in FCAT scores has history of problems

By Leslie Postal

Orlando Sentinel

The testing company responsible for the delayed release of this year's FCAT scores has a history of problems -- in Florida and across the country.


Whaddya expect for a lousy $254 million?

By Howard Troxler
St. Petersburg Times

The top ten reasons for late FCAT scores.


Florida public universities to raise tuition costs

By Scott Davis

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Get ready for some sticker shock if you plan to attend a state public university this fall.


Florida universities push for $100 million research grant from BP

By Stephanie Hayes

St. Petersburg Times

BP has promised to eventually dole out $500 million toward research in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.


School tests failing stress test: FCAT grading problems offer one example

Editorial

Palm Beach Post

FCAT results are late because of a series of screw-ups. Education Commissioner Eric Smith will move to fine NCS Pearson, the company responsible, and that the fines could run into the millions of dollars.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Lawmaker: Lower taxes on Gulf coast properties

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

Property appraisers from three Panhandle counties and a state representative say the Legislature should allow tax appraisers to lower coastal property values immediately because of the oil spill.


Region's economy shows signs of life

By Jim Stratton

Orlando Sentinel

After more than a year of decline, Central Florida's economic indicators appear to be slowly shifting direction, although signs of a turnaround remain spotty and anemic.


In home market, a bit less distress?

By Tom Bayles

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Foreclosures leveled off during May in Southwest Florida, the third consecutive month that the total number of filings has declined.


Farmers Face Caps on Water Use During Freezes

By Gabrielle Sena and Steve Newborn

WUSF Public Radio Tampa

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is proposing a cap on how much water farmers can use to protect their crops from freezing.


New Florida law allows for paying traffic fines in installments

By Larry Hannan

Florida Times-Union

Ellis White remembers the day his 2-year-old granddaughter asked him why he didn't drive.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Implementing Reform

The Progress Report

Think Progress

Yesterday, President Obama sought to sell the health overhaul law to skeptical seniors, "launching a defense of his presidency's biggest accomplishment" as the government prepared to release "the first batch of $250 checks to seniors who fall into Medicare's prescription drug coverage gap, known as the 'doughnut hole.'"


Bud Chiles says 1 million Florida children are without health insurance

By Aaron Sharockman

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Politifact

Lawton "Bud" Chiles III, son of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles, announced his independent run for governor on June 3, 2010, by saying he'd be a voice for those who traditionally have been cut out of the democratic process.


Ad firms collide over battle to win Florida's multi-million dollar anti-smoking campaign

By Gary Fineout

Florida Tribune

A fierce battle has broken out over who should be in control of the state's multi-million campaign to keep teenagers from smoking.


Bill McCollum hypocrisy

Editorial

Orlando Sentinel

It's bad enough that the ultrasound bill Gov. Charlie Crist wisely appears poised to veto would strong-arm and pick the pocket of women seeking their constitutional right to an abortion.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Demonstrators urged Sen. LeMieux to support the DREAM Act

By Kate Bradshaw

WMNF Community Radio Tampa

Today demonstrators in three Florida cities urged US Senator George LeMieux to cosponsor the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Scott Rothstein: Extravagant life, sentence to match

By Fred Grimm

Miami Herald

Related: How Scott Rothstein gambled -- and lost

Scott Rothstein's final extravagance came to 50 years.

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