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Progress Florida -- Progressive Solutions for Florida

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Daily Clips for July 6, 2010

FEATURED STORIES

Bill and Rick are their own worst problems

By Carl Hiaasen

Miami Herald

In the Republican race for governor, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum finds himself trailing a candidate who has more baggage than J-Lo on a camel safari.


Greer attorney want to depose McCollum, other GOP leaders

By Steve Bousquet

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Related: Greer wants to delay civil suit; Republicans say no way

The Jim Greer saga took a new twist Monday when the attorney for the indicted former Republican Party boss said he'll call Attorney General Bill McCollum as a witness and seek to disqualify him from any role in prosecuting the case.


Crist, legislators maneuver over oil spill special session

By Steve Bousquet

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Related: Heavy-hitting Tampa trial lawyer Steve Yerrid building legal team to take on BP

Related: State officials reluctant to close Gulf waters off to fishing

As the BP oil blowout saturates Northwest Florida's already fragile economy with despair, a special legislative session in the coming weeks is becoming increasingly likely.


On July 4 In Spill Country, Pondering America

The Associated Press

NPR

From the country's earliest days, when a handful of colonists became fed up with Britain and decided independence was worth dying for, Americans have been guided by fires in their bellies and a deep belief in the ability to accomplish anything.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

Editorial cartoon of the week

By Jeff Parker

Florida Today

FLORIDA POLITICS

Greer attorney: Anti-Crist Republicans decided to ruin my client

By Rene Stutzman

Orlando Sentinel

Related: Greer-Johnson phone call is intriguing piece of Tallahassee theater

A criminal defense attorney for former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer on Monday promised to make defense witnesses of some of the most powerful people in Florida politics - Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and state Republican chief John Thrasher.


Ex-GOP chair's defense to call attorney general as witness

By Bill Cotterell

Florida Capital News

Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer's defense attorney said today he will try to disqualify Attorney General Bill McCollum from prosecuting the case -- and call the GOP candidate for governor as a defense witness for Greer.


After utility commission purge, is it time for consumer uprising?

By Michael Mayo

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Related editorial: Politics trumps law in PSC nominations

Maybe you missed it, but something truly outrageous happened last week.


Take the PSC away from the Florida Legislature

By Howard Troxler

St. Petersburg Times

The purge is complete. Four of the five members of our state Public Service Commission who voted against raising electric rates in January have now been canned by the Legislature.

POLITICAL RACES

Firm Greene bought files for bankruptcy

By Beth Reinhard

Miami Herald

Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene is pitching himself to Florida voters as a successful businessman who knows how to create jobs.


Health law stays on the radar in Florida race

By Lloyd Dunkelberger

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

If you thought the debate over health care ended when the federal government approved a major overhaul to the system earlier this year, think again.


Democrats quietly line up in Crist's corner

By William March

Tampa Trinbune

You may never have heard of Peggy Land, unless you're a Tampa Democratic political insider.


Senate candidate Jeff Greene invades rival Kendrick Meek's home turf

By Beth Reinhard

Miami Herald

Committing the political equivalent of a home invasion in broad daylight, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene stumped Monday afternoon in the needy Miami neighborhood represented in Congress by rival Kendrick Meek and his mother for almost two decades.


Review of Rick Scott's financial holdings shows complex network beyond his reported net worth

By Aaron Sharockman

St. Petersburg Times

Rick Scott reported an eye-popping net worth of more than $218 million last month in forms filed with the state Division of Elections.


Details, schmetails! He just wants top job

By Adam C. Smith

St. Petersburg Times

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott is running as an outsider untainted by political or government experience.


Preemie birth case ignites GOP race for governor

By Michael C. Bender

Palm Beach Post

Limp and blue, Sidney Miller miraculously gasped for air and spontaneously cried when she was born four months early in 1990.


McCollum wins support of social conservative

By Catherine Whittenburg

Tampa Tribune

Attorney General Bill McCollum has won the support of a social conservative who once blasted him as pandering to the gay community.


Political candidates tracked for slip-ups on video

By Adam C. Smith

St. Petersburg Times

They lurk, cameras at the ready, during every meeting of the Cabinet, three statewide candidates in their crosshairs.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

We the People, Put Amendment 4 on the November Ballot

By Greg Gimbert

Bradenton Times

This July 4th we have an extra reason to honor our Declaration of Independence and our Constitutional right to petition - Amendment 4 is finally on the ballot.


Will new rules shape lawmakers' districts?

By Aaron Deslatte

Orlando Sentinel

It's a fight over party control of the levers of government that's as old as American democracy.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

BP wasted no time preparing for oil spill lawsuits

By Marc Caputo

Miami Herald

Related: Is BP rejecting skimmers to save money on Gulf oil cleanup?

Related: Defying warnings, swimmers still take to oiled Gulf waters

Related: In Pensacola Beach, business plunges amid oil crisis

Related: New cap may help with containing oil spill

In the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP publicly touted its expert oil clean-up response, but it quietly girded for a legal fight that could soon embroil hundreds of attorneys, span five states and last more than a decade.


EPA chief: I wouldn't swim off Panhandle

By Dara Kam

Palm Beach Post

Related: Official downplays forecast of oil on South Florida beaches

Related: Palm Beach County family aims to save Gulf with business

The nation's top environmental regulator said she would not swim in the waters off an oil- and tar-saturated beach at a Panhandle park and advised beachgoers to trust their noses and eyes when deciding whether to plunge into the gulf.


Determining oil spill's environmental damage is difficult

By David A. Fahrenthold

Washington Post

How dead is the Gulf of Mexico? It is perhaps the most important question of the BP oil spill -- but scientists don't appear close to answering it despite a historically vast effort.


Protecting Manatees from the Gulf Oil Spill

By Scott Finn

WUSF Public Radio Tampa

You might have heard about the ongoing effort to dig up hundreds of sea turtle nests along the Gulf and move them out of harm's way.


Oil threatens way of life for oyster industry in Fla.

By Nathan Crabbe

Gainesville Sun

BP is receiving the blame for a shortage of Florida oysters, even though the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has yet to reach the state's major oyster beds.


Drilling off Cuba could be sticky proposition

By Christine Stapleton

Palm Beach Post

Despite the warnings of Dick Cheney, George Will, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, the Russians are not drilling for oil off Cuba.


Taxpayers Group: Nuclear Resurgence Not Exactly Good News for Florida

By Gina Presson

Public News Service Florida

With the spill in the Gulf highlighting the dangers of American reliance on fossil fuels, some see a resurgence on the horizon for nuclear power, which could have major implications for Florida's economy and environment.


Unstoppable oil dispirits Gulf coast

Editorial

Tampa Tribune

Along major parts of the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, the battle against oil is being lost. Entire communities are in mourning.

LGBT

Lesbian Ex-Sergeant Hopes for Repeal of Military's Policy

By Gary White

Lakeland Ledger

Felicia Pecora said she hadn't yet found herself when she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve at age 22.

EDUCATION

FCAT damages could top $14 million, DOE estimates

By Leslie Postal

Orlando Sentinel

Pearson, Florida's testing contractor, could owe the state another $11.7 million for the late delivery of FCAT scores -- on top of the $3 million already demanded, state officials estimate.


Florida to get $170.2 million to improve schools

The Associated Press

Tampa Tribune

The U.S. Department of Education will award Florida $170.2 million to turn around its persistently low achieving schools.


Costs for Higher Ed Keep Rising

By Robin Williams Adams

Lakeland Ledger

The price tag keeps increasing for public higher education.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida taxpayers foot bill to shore up state pension

By Josh Hafenbrack

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Faced with financial strain on its $110 billion retirement system, Florida has protected the pension fund - and those who receive benefits from it - and instead passed the increased cost to taxpayers.


Florida pension agency head blurs line between state, personal business

By Sydney P. Freedberg

St. Petersburg Times

The man who oversees $134 billion of public money has recommended investing some of it in companies run by friends or business associates, and he doesn't see any conflict in doing that.


Grayson helps build Fed audit into financial reform measure

By Bill Thompson

Gainesville Sun

In what might be the one issue that could unite anti-Wall Street liberals, angry tea partiers, laissez-faire libertarians and suspicious conspiracy theorists, Congress is close to forcing open the books of the nation's central bank.


Florida raises poker stakes

By David Ball

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Quick quiz: What does Florida have in common with Las Vegas?

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Report: Prescription drugs kill far more in Florida than illegal drugs, Oxycodone deaths at record high

By Brett Ader

Florida Independent

According to a report released Thursday by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, 5 percent of all deaths in 2009 were attributable to prescription drug use, far outnumbering those caused by illegal substances.


Medicare bids save 1/3 on costs

By Jim Saunders

Health News Florida

Medicare patients and taxpayers will save more than one-third on home-health equipment costs in South and Central Florida next year because of a new competitive-bidding program, federal officials announced Thursday.


In online medical records, worries about privacy breaches

By Fred Tasker

Miami Herald

If millions of patients across America have electronic medical records they can access 24/7 by punching a code into a home computer or BlackBerry, how safe are those records from identity thieves?


Medicaid reforms a boon to state

Editorial

St. Petersburg Times

Critics of health care reform such as Attorney General Bill McCollum need to quit claiming that it will overburden state finances by opening Medicaid to a flood of new poor and low-income recipients.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

All created equal

Editorial

Florida Today

On July 4, we celebrate not only our nation's founding and freedom but also this ringing avowal: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," wrote Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.


Case for immigration reform remains strong

Editorial

Miami Herald

Politically and in other ways, President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush are polar opposites.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Fla. Supreme Court chief justice forms innocence panel

By Bill Kaczor

The Associated Press

The new chief justice of the state Supreme Court created the Florida Innocence Commission on Friday, saying it will study issues dealing with wrongful convictions over the next two years.


Gov. Crist against Ackerman's return

By Kris Wernowsky

Pensacola News Journal

Gov. Charlie Crist wants to appoint a replacement for Escambia County Judge David Ackerman, a brief recently filed with the Florida Supreme Court says.


Kagan comes off as competent and reserved

Editorial

St. Petersburg Times

No need to sugarcoat it. Elena Kagan's Supreme Court confirmation hearings were not particularly edifying.

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