Daily Clips for February 4, 2011

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

‘Dirty Hari’ gets a website and some hand sanitizer
By Bob Shaw
Orlando Sentinel
Progress Florida, the St. Petersburg-based website unrelated to the St. Petersburg-based utility with the similar name, has drawn a bead on Senate President Mike Haridopolos, aka “Dirty Hari,”and his nascent U.S. Senate campaign.

As he begins to raise money for U.S. Senate race, Haridopolos hit with 'dirty' attack
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Liberal activists showed up this morning at an Orlando fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos and tried to pass out hand sanitizer. Their point: Haridopolos is dirty.

Progress Florida and Florida Watch Action unveil DirtyHari.org attacking Mike Haridopolos
By Peter Schorsch
St. Petersblog 2.0
Today Progress Florida and Florida Watch Action launched a new website www.DirtyHari.org. According to a press release, the site serves as an exposé “devoted to holding Senate President Mike Haridopolos accountable to the people of Florida, not just the banks, utilities, oil companies, HMO’s, big developers, and other corporate special interests who bankrolled his state senate campaign and rise to leadership.”

FEATURED STORIES

Gov. Rick Scott sued over decision to halt federal review over redistricting standards
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The war over redrawing Florida's political maps returned to federal court Thursday as five Monroe County voters, along with three advocacy groups, sued Gov. Rick Scott to compel him to follow a federal law requiring the Justice Department review of the new redistricting language approved by voters in November.

Scott plans to cut school taxes but promises to make up the funding
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday the budget proposal he unveils on Monday will include $2 billion worth of tax savings, including cuts in corporate income taxes and in the property taxes that fund public schools.

Florida teachers feeling the squeeze
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
It's a tough time to be a public school teacher in Florida.

Florida rejects another $1 million health care reform grant
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Using as ammunition a Florida judge's ruling this week that the federal health care law is unconstitutional, state officials are wasting no time stepping away from the controversial overhaul.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

Pillars of Parity vs. Axis of Unemployment
By Daniel Tilson
The Examiner
As twentieth century American history unfolded and longstanding barriers to social progress fell one by one, the key causative factor each time was collective social activism on a massive scale.

Pam Bondi “Proves” She Misunderstands Health Care Ruling
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
In the wake of the ruling yesterday by Florida Judge Roger Vinson against the Affordable Care Act as “unconstitutional,” the Republican Party is absolutely beside itself with joy and cheering that the health care law is now all but defeated.

Jeb Bush’s endless war on unions
By Joy-Ann Reid
The Reid Report
Just to be clear: Jeb Bush hates unions … teachers unions, police unions, firefighters unions … basically any brand or form of public employee union that exists in nature.

Rick Scott's Bad Case of Pension Envy
By Sheree Shatsky
Sheree’s Page
Hope all those state and local workers who voted for Rick Scott are okay with his hand picking your pocket.

Izzy Wasn’t Very Smart, Wazzy?
By Rojelio Jose de la Piedra
Florida Clarion
While responsibility for the investigation into soon to be former Congressman David Rivera and the pay-offs he took from Flagler Dog Track have shifted from the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s office to the FDLE, the focus remains on Rivera as well as the key figure in the illegal $500,000 payment, Flagler honcho Izzy Havenick.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Gov. Rick Scott touts tax plan as a model for President Barack Obama
By Aaron Sharockman
St. Petersburg Times
Gov. Rick Scott told employees at an East Tampa manufacturing plant Thursday that his highly anticipated state budget proposal will include $2 billion in tax cuts that should become a model for President Barack Obama.

Gov. Rick Scott upends PSC by rescinding appointments
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The calm that has overtaken the once-embattled Public Service Commission in recent months ended abruptly Wednesday when Gov. Rick Scott withdrew from confirmation four of the five members of the state's utility board.

Ex-U.S. Rep. Foley returns to GOP scene, four years after grounding in scandal
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, a pariah with many in the GOP after he abruptly resigned in a 2006 Internet sex scandal, is slowly regaining acceptance with some local Republicans.

POLITICAL RACES

Fates of President Barack Obama, Sen. Bill Nelson may be linked in Florida, poll shows
By Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Sen. Bill Nelson is doing an okay job in office, but he's not in the strongest of positions heading into the 2012 election season, a new poll from Quinnipiac University shows.

Likely 2012 GOP hopefuls hit the Florida circuit
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
In recent months, nearly every likely Republican 2012 presidential candidate has made his or her voice heard in Florida, courting potential campaign donors at big-ticket speaking engagements and invitation-only dinners.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Oil drilling off Cuba coast draws U.S. foes
By Lesley Clark
Miami Herald
With Cuba poised to drill for oil off its coast as early as this spring, Florida lawmakers are renewing efforts to block it, citing fears about damage to the state's beaches in the event of a major oil spill.

On Gulf Oil Spill’s Effects, Doing Science With a Deadline
By John Schwartz and Mark Schrope
New York Times
In mid-December, Wes Tunnell’s phone rang with a request that would ruin his holiday plans.

Scott withdraws appointments to PSC, other enviro panels
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday withdrew 154 appointments to boards across the state including four of the five Florida Public Service Commission members.

Conservancy of Southwest Florida: 97 percent of bays and estuaries ‘impaired’
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
In its recently released “2011 Estuaries Report Card,” the Conservancy of Southwest Florida identifies some of the state’s most impaired waterbodies — waterbodies that would likely be aided by a set of numeric nutrient standards currently being disputed in the state.

EDUCATION

Study: Students need more paths to career success
By Christine Armario
Associated Press
The current U.S. education system is failing to prepare millions of young adults for successful careers by providing a one-size-fits-all approach, and it should take a cue from its European counterparts by offering greater emphasis on occupational instruction, a Harvard University study published Wednesday concludes.

Teachers fret as Pinellas project links their performance to school grades
By Ron Matus
St. Petersburg Times
Amid Florida's high-stakes campaign to revamp teacher evaluations, a pilot program in Pinellas County is linking some high school teachers' performance to their schools' grades.

Duval School Board angered over how state law, commissioner responding to struggling schools
By Topher Sanders
Florida Times-Union
Members of the Duval County School Board expressed growing frustration Thursday with the state's laws and the education commissioner, with some questioning his trustworthiness, as the district waits to hear his response to a plan for its most struggling schools.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Gov. Scott says budget will include $2 billion in tax cuts
News Service of Florida
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott stopped at a Tampa manufacturing plant Thursday to tout his $2 billion tax-cutting plan and to taunt President Obama for failing to push for similar rollbacks at the federal level.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

AG Pam Bondi wants to crack down on pill mills
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Flanked by state and federal police and prosecutors, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday announced a campaign to lock up doctors and pharmacists who are "nothing less than drug dealers in white coats."

Gov. unblocks pill-mill rules
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi said today that Gov. Rick Scott has removed his block on the state's pain-clinic regulations, which had been held up by his edict that all rules be stopped for a year to make sure they didn't hurt small businesses.

Mia Jones on Scott stopping health care prep: Many will "continue to live one illness away from disaster"
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
State Rep. Mia Jones, D - Jacksonville, is out with a statement on Gov. Rick Scott's decision to halt implementation of federal health care reforms after a second judge ruled provisions in the plan are unconstitutional.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Dramatic drop in illegal immigration unlikely to stall debate
By Kim MacQueen
Florida Tribune
It's a hot topic and already the subject of several different bills more than a month before the beginning of the 2011 Legislative session, but illegal immigration is actually down in Florida.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Nelson to GSA: Fix building or move out
By William R. Levesque
St. Petersburg Times
Sen. Bill Nelson said he isn't pleased that some employees on the upper floors of the 17-story federal courthouse in downtown Tampa are still sickened by mold or some unknown agent.