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Progress Florida -- Progressive Solutions for Florida

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Daily Clips for June 24, 2010

FEATURED STORIES

Oil blackens Pensacola beach

By Jamie Page

Pensacola News Journal

Related: Panhandle counties push for action, cash

Related: Crist disgusted by oil on Pensacola Beach

Related: On beach, sheets of tar and heavy hearts

Related: Dolphin washes ashore, dies in rescue

Related editorial: Come take a look at this, Mr. Suttles

On Wednesday -- the day after BP America's Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles projected oil damage to the Panhandle would be similar to the tar balls already experienced -- parts of Pensacola Beach turned black.


Cap back after robot nudge stalls oil collection

The Associated Press

Palm Beach Post

Related: New Gulf spill cleanup head says job is to listen

A cap was back in place on BP's broken oil well after a deep-sea blunder forced crews to temporarily remove what has been the most effective method so far for containing some of the massive Gulf of Mexico spill.


Marco Rubio's consistency on offshore drilling may cost him at the polls

By Luke Johnson

Florida Independent

Even as tar balls wash up on Florida Panhandle shores from the April 20 oil spill, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio stands consistently behind offshore drilling.


New showdown looming between Crist and Legislature

By Gary Fineout

Florida Tribune

A battle over proposed redistricting amendments is turning into an extraordinary legal fight between members of Congress, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, Gov. Charlie Crist and even a former governor.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Sen. LeMieux's office has family ties to BP

By Alex Leary

St. Petersburg Times

The husband of Sen. George LeMieux's chief of staff has been hired to help BP navigate its public relations nightmare.

POLITICAL RACES

Trial lawyers, union and Democratic loyalists are helping fund Crist in U.S. Senate race

By Steve Bousquet

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

By bolting from the Republican Party, Gov. Charlie Crist has one place left to raise big money in his race for the U.S. Senate: Democrats.


Third-party candidates gaining ground

By Brandon Larrabee

Florida Times-Union

One is a long-time Republican and the other is the son of a Democratic governor.


Florida gubernatorial candidates back changes to class-size law

By Matt Coleman

Florida Times-Union

A consensus is hard to come by in politics. But four of Florida's leading gubernatorial candidates have announced their support for a constitutional amendment referendum on the November ballot to alter Florida's 2002 class size amendment.


Dodgeball: Rick Scott, Bill McCollum debate about debate dates

By Aaron Hale

Naples Daily News

Two major Republican governor candidates are trading barbs about who is playing political games and ducking a public debate.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Campaign launched to promote Amendment 9

By Gary Fineout

Florida Tribune

A campaign effort has been launched to promote Amendment 9, the measure pushed by the GOP-controlled Legislature to block federal health care reform.


Amendment 4 gives us a voice in growth

By Lesley Blackner

Miami Herald

In the June 13 story A different world for developer Terry Stiles, Stiles says ``it was easy'' to pave over Broward County.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

After judge lifts moratorium, Obama administration says it may let some gulf drilling resume

Staff Report

St. Petersburg Times

The Obama administration may let certain deepwater drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico resume during a six-month halt, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.


BP's "media star" tries to reassure Florida officials

By Bruce Ritchie

Florida Tribune

Darryl Willis, a new media new face for BP in its response to the ongoing Gulf oil spill, says he doesn't consider himself a star -- or a potential new target of the company's critics.


People worldwide to join Florida activists' cause in Saturday's 'Hands Across the Sand' protest against offshore drilling

By Willie Howard

Palm Beach Post

Panhandle restaurateur Dave Rauschkolb never envisioned the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last fall when he began organizing Hands Across the Sand, a statewide gathering on beaches held Feb. 13 to protest the possibility of oil drilling near Florida's coastline.


The Animals Most Threatened by the Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Staff Report

ABC News

As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, cleanup crews and animal welfare experts are working tirelessly to prevent massive ecological damage on the coast.


Florida DEP's Sole wants federal closed fishing area reduced

By Bruce Ritchie

FloridaEnvironments.com

Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole is asking NOAA to scale back the federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico that are closed to fishing.


Con Artists Look to Make Money off Oil Disaster

By Gina Jordan

WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee

Beware of fraudsters looking to cash in on the oil spill. As Gina Jordan reports, don't be surprised if you suddenly find a hot scoop in your inbox.


A new political cave-in: In Palm Beach County, mining wins again

Editorial

Palm Beach Post

It didn't take Palm Beach County long to back away from real regulation of commercial rock mining in the Everglades Agricultural Area.

LGBT

Florida's gay adoption debate

By Keith Lovely Jr.

CNN

Cynthia Monson who was in an on again, off again relationship with Patricia Thomas, adopted two children early on in their relationship.


St. Petersburg mayor to attend gay pride parade to get sense of atmosphere

By Michael Van Sickler

St. Petersburg Times

Since its debut in 2003, the St. Pete Pride celebration has become one of the city's biggest events, outdrawing opening day at Tropicana Field and the Martin Luther King Jr. parade.


Ending bigotry

Editorial

Florida Today

When it comes to gay rights in America, Florida ranks as one of the most discriminatory of states.

EDUCATION

Florida and 25 other states apply for Race to the Top assessment grant

By Leslie Postal

Orlando Sentinel

Florida and 25 other states today applied for a federal grant that would let them develop new, common tests to judge students' math and language arts skills.


Schools play waiting game with late FCAT scores

By Jeffrey S. Solochek

St. Petersburg Times

Wiregrass Ranch High School has 15 teaching jobs to fill, but it hasn't even advertised a third of them yet.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Obama administration provides $1.5 billion to prevent housing foreclosures

By Bart Jansen

Tallahassee Democrat

Florida and four other states will receive $1.5 billion to prevent housing foreclosures, administration officials announced Wednesday.


Even if home is a fortress, owners still lose insurance

By Jeff Harrington

St. Petersburg Times

Five years ago, local contractor Jim Kuhnsman built a hurricane-resistant fortress in St. Petersburg for his family.


Wall Street Reform's Final Act

The Progress Report

Think Progress

This week, the conference committee reconciling the House and Senate's respective versions of financial regulatory reform is dealing with some of the most contentious aspects of the effort to rein in Wall Street and build a fairer financial system.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Clause may let 'mini-meds' off the hook

By Carol Gentry

Health News Florida

The low annual payout limits on skimpy health plans, including the state's own "Cover Florida" program, are supposed to go away in September under new federal rules released Tuesday afternoon.


Medicare plans surge 9% in FL

By Lottie Watts

Health News Florida

For the first time, Florida has more than 1 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in managed-care plans, according to data released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.


University of Florida goes tobacco-free come July

By Brett Ader

Florida Independent

Following a national trend that has seen close to 400 campuses introduce bans on smoking, the University of Florida will become the first public college in the state to impose a policy forbidding smoking and the use of all tobacco-related products on campus.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Immigration policy change rumored

By Alfonso Chardy

Miami Herald

Eight Republican senators sent a letter to President Barack Obama this week asking for confirmation that the White House is planning to defer deportations or grant parole to millions of undocumented immigrants, pending congressional debate on immigration reform.


Fix court's trashing of anti-age discrimination act

By Robert S. Weiner and Yusuf M. Hassan

Miami Herald

The late Congressman Claude Pepper, a Miami Democrat who chaired the House Aging Committee, said: "Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism."

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida has joined multistate probe into Google

By Gary Fineout

Florida Tribune

Florida is joining with other states that have launched a probe into Google Inc.'s gathering of personal data from unsecured wireless networks.


Tallahassee area native named U.S. Attorney

By Bill Cotterell

Tallahassee Democrat

An attorney who grew up in the Tallahassee area is the new top federal prosecutor for North Florida.

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