Daily Clips for November 29, 2010

FEATURED STORIES Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s economic team embraces ‘free market’ approach By Ryan Mills Naples Daily News Promising to slash taxes, cut government and create 700,000 new jobs along the way, Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott campaigned as an unapologetic economic conservative and champion of the free market. Rick Scott's most trusted adviser an unknown to most Floridians By Tonya Alanez South Florida Sun-Sentinel She may be helping to shape the Sunshine State's future, but to the majority of Floridians she's a total unknown. Scott quiet on future of an immigration bill in Florida By Catherine Whittenburg Tampa Tribune Four months ago, one of the few things hotter in Florida than the weather was the debate over illegal immigration -- thanks largely to Rick Scott, who used the issue as a sledgehammer against Bill McCollum in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Florida legislators move to block health-care reform By Aaron Deslatte Orlando Sentinel On his first day as Florida's new House speaker, Rep. Dean Cannon took a clear shot at President Barack Obama's new health-care reform law. Fla. Dems seek new party head By Jim Ash Florida Capital News Beaten to the edge of irrelevancy in the Nov. 2 election, the Florida Democratic Party is searching for an architect in a crucial rebuilding year. Rumors swirl over state GOP leader By Jim Ash Pensacola News Journal For a Republican Party of Florida struggling to shake off a cloud of scandal, the Nov. 2 election may have been the easy part. EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK By Jeff Parker Florida Today FLORIDA POLITICS Hillsborough GOP leader aiming for state party's top post By Janet Zink St. Petersburg Times Related: Gillum makes his case for Florida Democratic Party chair At a luncheon in Orlando this month, Deborah Cox-Roush took her seat at a table with newly anointed U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster and Lt. Gov.-elect Jennifer Carroll. Florida laws will follow state Senate’s right turn By Brandon Larrabee Florida Times-Union Conservatives have long called the Florida Senate the place where good policy ideas went to die. Focus now on Scott filling posts By Derek Catron Daytona Beach News-Journal Kit Martin had been a die-hard Bill McCollum supporter, even hosting a fundraising event in her home for the gubernatorial hopeful. Rick Scott's proposed $1 billion cut to prison budget likely to spur a fight By Kathleen Haughuney News Service of Florida When Gov.-elect Rick Scott unveiled his economic plan on the campaign trail this summer, there was a portion that caught many law enforcement professionals by surprise, a proposed $1 billion cut to the state's corrections' budget. Legislature has lots of millionaires By John Kennedy News Service of Florida With multi-millionaire Republican Rick Scott heading into the governor's office, Florida voters also are turning to a Legislature packed with millionaires to lead the state out of its long and deep economic trench. Marco Rubio: Catholic or Protestant? By Mark Oppenheimer New York Times Marco Rubio, the charismatic senator-elect from Florida, is in many ways similar to other Cuban-American politicians from his home state: conservative, Republican and a “practicing and devout Roman Catholic,” in the words of his spokesman, one who “regularly attends Catholic Mass” and “was baptized, confirmed and married in the Roman Catholic Church.” Allen West, one of two black Republicans just elected to House, goes against grain By Krissah Thompson Washington Post Allen West, a 22-year Army veteran, is preparing for Washington a bit like he would for a battlefield. Fla congresswoman to head House Foreign Affairs By Laura Wides-Munoz The Associated Press She hung up on the next president, Barack Obama. Twice. She thought it was a prank. RNC convention spending alarms party veterans By Dan Balz Washington Post Republicans are spending freely on their 2012 national convention in Tampa, burning through money at a pace that has alarmed some veterans of past conventions and causing more potential problems for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele. Democratic party organizers suspended after snubbing Palm Beach County commissioner By George Bennett Palm Beach Post Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel says he has suspended a pair of party precinct organizers after they publicly snubbed Democratic County Commissioner Burt Aaronson. POLITICAL RACES Candidates in 2012 Florida races already spending campaign cash By Matt Dixon Florida Times-Union The year was 2008, and a rumor that state Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, was in line to be appointed the senior U.S. diplomat in Bermuda sparked some early politicking by those who wanted to be next in line for Hill's seat. ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY Tribes angry, Everglades projects halt after workers dig up major burial ground but don't tell By Christine Stapleton Palm Beach Post In May 2008, archaeologists began the tedious task of exhuming the remains of Native Americans at a remote site south of Lake Okeechobee and reburying them at another remote site, to make way for a man-made wetland needed to restore the Everglades. Lake Okeechobee water releases raise concerns about South Florida water supply By Andy Reid South Florida Sun-Sentinel Sending more Lake Okeechobee water west for environmental needs is raising concerns for South Florida growers planning to rely on lake water for irrigation during the dry months to come. Feinberg: All oil spill claim payouts justified By Louis Cooper Pensacola News Journal Independent oil spill claims administrator Ken Feinberg says the fact that most compensation money in Florida has gone outside of the five counties that saw oil on their beaches is not the product of bias. Wildlife trade brings tarantulas, pythons, cobras By David Fleshler and Dana Williams South Florida Sun-Sentinel They arrive from Amazon rainforests, central African savannahs and south Asian jungles, crated passengers in the cargo holds of airliners. LGBT Troops buck historical trend by saying gays OK By Anne Flaherty The Associated Press When a majority of troops told the Pentagon this summer they didn't care if gays were allowed to serve openly in the military, it was in sharp contrast to the time when America's fighting forces voiced bitter opposition to accepting racial minorities and women in the services. EDUCATION Lawmakers to Scott: Fix schools By Peter Guinta St. Augustine Record Rick Scott, Florida's governor-elect, stopped at the Hilton Garden Inn with his mobile transition team Wednesday to listen to local lawmakers, all of whom stressed that the state's education system needs improvement. Are Florida's high-school grads ready for college? By Lauren Roth Orlando Sentinel As a student at Colonial High School, Valeria Martinez took dual-enrollment college courses, qualified for honors English and earned B's in all of her math classes. State approves 65 school improvement grants By Bill Kaczor The Associated Press State officials have approved applications submitted by 62 of Florida’s 67 school districts and three laboratory schools for shares of Florida’s $700 million federal “Race to the Top” education grant. Florida Attorney General's Office now investigating eight for-profit colleges By Richard Danielson St. Petersburg Times The Florida Attorney General's Office has added three schools to its statewide investigation of student recruiting at for-profit colleges. JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY Jobless benefits may run out soon for many Floridians By Jim Stratton Orlando Sentinel For the more than 100,000 Floridians receiving extended unemployment benefits from the federal government, the next few weeks are going to seem familiar — stressful, but familiar. Shortcuts on the foreclosure paper trail By Todd Ruger Sarasota Herald-Tribune To get a sense of the lawlessness in Florida's court-run foreclosure process, look no further than public records at the Sarasota and Manatee county courthouses. HEALTH AND SENIORS Debate swirls around DOH future By Jim Saunders Health News Florida With the Florida Department of Health under fire in the Legislature, longtime public-health leaders are trying to help craft plans to avert what they fear will be a dismantling of the agency. Florida's AIDS medication program feeling strained By Kate Howard Florida Times-Union High unemployment and the growing ranks of the uninsured have left a program that provides free medication to the state's HIV/AIDS patients struggling to meet demand. Lawsuit break for doctors won't help Florida's Medicaid problem Editorial Palm Beach Post Republican legislators want to reduce the $7.5 billion that Florida expects to spend on Medicaid this fiscal year by giving doctors who treat the poor immunity from medical malpractice lawsuits. Legislature errs with reprieve on drug trade Editorial Bradenton Herald Florida’s Legislature made a terrible mistake in its rush to override eight vetoes by Gov. Charlie Crist. Florida's medical loss rations Editorial Sarasota Herald-Tribune With one of every five Floridians lacking health insurance, the state government should welcome the opportunities presented by the federal health care reform law. CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES College students take DREAM message to Sen. George LeMieux's Miami-Dade office By Alfonso Chardy Miami Herald South Florida students took their campaign for the DREAM Act to the Miami-Dade office of U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., who voted against the measure in September when it surfaced as an amendment to the defense spending bill. JUSTICE AND THE COURTS Former chief Judge Hawkes of Appeals Court admits he was asked to resign By Lucy Morgan St. Petersburg Times First District Court of Appeal Judge Paul M. Hawkes went on a Tallahassee radio morning show to "dispel" erroneous reports about the opulent new courthouse he's helped build. Jim Morrison pardon talk revives 40-year-old story By Robert Farley St. Petersburg Times Reina McWilliams woke one recent Wednesday as usual to the sounds of the "Greatest Hits of the '60s and '70s" on Magic 102.7 FM.