PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS
Scott working hard to connect using social media
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Gainesville Sun
Excerpt: Mark Ferrulo, head of Progress Florida, a liberal advocacy group, said the governor's use of social media to get his message out gives him more say-so over the format — as opposed to answering questions in a public forum. "You have much more control over the debate. You have much more control over the questions," Ferrulo said. "We saw at the Twitter town hall that he just completely dodged all the hard-hitting, sensitive questions."
FEATURED STORIES
Rick Scott's Medicaid Overhaul to Benefit…Rick Scott?
By Suzy Khimm
Mother Jones
Republican governor Rick Scott's push to privatize Medicaid in Florida is highly controversial—not least because the health care business Scott handed over to his wife when he took office could reap a major profit if the legislation becomes law.
Dorworth-backed measure would give Scott greater freedom to roll back regulation
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
A Florida House measure that would give the governor and members of the cabinet the authority to repeal rules using a speedier process during their first six months in office is intended to satisfy Tallahassee’s growing appetite for reducing regulations.
House votes to restrict union activity
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
The House voted 73-40 on Friday to pass a Republican proposal that clamps down on union political activity.
Bill will adversely affect environment, but will it create jobs?
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Builders of homes, offices, roads and other projects have been allowed to wipe out more wetlands in Florida than in any other state.
Report-card time for the state's insurers
By Paige St. John
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Related: Florida insurers report card
Excerpt: Former Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw, whose office was called upon to create the report card, said insurers threatened to sue if he published the grades. "They hated what we came up with," Shaw said of the insurance industry. "They fought it tooth and nail."
Case against Ray Sansom and Jay Odom is dropped
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
In a dramatic end to a trial nearly two years in the making, criminal charges against former House Speaker Ray Sansom were abruptly dropped Friday after prosecutors said a judge limited evidence of an alleged conspiracy to get $6 million in state funding for an airport building a developer wanted to use.
EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Doug MacGregor
Ft. Myers News-Press
FLORIDA POLITICS
Florida Legislature proves once and for all that it is for sale
By Howard Troxler
St. Petersburg Times
These are harsh words for a Sunday morning, but the occasion screams out for them.
The prince of darkness
By Tim Nickens
St. Petersburg Times
‘GIVE AN INCH…" That was the sarcastic tweet last weekend by Brian Burgess, the communications director for Gov. Rick Scott.
Panhandle crowd greets Gov. Scott with catcalls
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott arrived in this Panhandle city Friday night to the catcalls of more than 150 teachers, union members and Democratic activists protesting his policies.
Outraged Workers and Students Rally at the Capitol
By Candace Sweat
WCTV CBS News Tallahassee
Members of the groups Awake the State and Fight Back Florida gathered on Florida's capitol to have their voices heard.
Gov. Rick Scott's drug testing policy stirs suspicion
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
One of the more popular services at Solantic, the urgent care chain co-founded by Florida Gov. Rick Scott, is drug testing, according to Solantic CEO Karen Bowling.
Drug testing of Florida employees may spark legal showdown
By Daniel Chang
Miami Herald
How much do Florida taxpayers have a right to know about public employees?
Early voting expansion hits partisan snag in Tallahassee
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times
The Legislature is about to have its annual debate over the popularity and convenience of early voting.
Scott, GOP legislators lead state in wrong direction
By Ron Littlepage
Florida Times-Union
Three months into Rick Scott’s reign as governor and three weeks into the legislative session, the direction the Republicans in charge want to take Florida is becoming clear.
Will new 'leadership funds' make bad system any better?
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
If the general public truly saw the outsized role that money plays in politics, the system might not withstand the hate mail.
Fair Districts only hope for more moderate Tallahassee
By Michael Mayo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Every time I hear the latest news from Tallahassee, I wonder if it's time to have a pro-democracy uprising in Florida.
GOP could struggle in redistricting to save Palm Beach County precincts for Allen West, Tom Rooney
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Does Democrat-dominated Palm Beach County still have enough red precincts to help two Republican congressmen?
Today in Tallahassee: Budget cuts, abortion, the courts, school vouchers
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Florida lawmakers will spend the week polishing up their proposed budgets as the Senate releases its draft spending plan on Monday and lawmakers start comparing it to the $66.5 billion proposal released by the House last week.
Even lobbyists worry about Legislature's rush to deregulate
Editorial
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
You know that the anti-government clamor in the Florida Legislature has reached a fever pitch when lobbyists are pleading to keep their industries regulated.
POLITICAL RACES
Democrats, GOP expect Florida to be a battleground again in 2012
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Get ready for another huge presidential battle in Florida.
As Mack says no, GOP Senate field starts to take shape
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Florida's 2012 Republican Senate primary is coming into clearer focus, with U.S. Rep. Connie Mack announcing Friday that he won't run and former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux saying he'll divulge his plans soon.
Election of Mayor Bob Buckhorn a boost for Florida Democrats
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Bob Buckhorn, a perennial also-ran in Hillsborough County, was elected mayor of Tampa last week, and that's a very big deal for Democrats in Florida.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Developers would determine "need" under growth bill rewrite
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
During a recent Cabinet meeting, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater summed up an important debate over growth management policy by relating it to the rapidly expanding Five Guys hamburger chain.
Florida's beauty at risk
By Jack E. Davis
St. Petersburg Times
Margaret Ross Tolbert had an idea to do something with a snorkel.
Pythons are making a resurgence in the Everglades
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Neither record cold temperatures nor water shortages have stopped the Everglades python menace, say water managers bracing for the springtime peak of python mating season.
Bid crawls along to get loggerhead turtles on endangered species list
By Eric Staats
Naples Daily News
A year after proposing to list loggerhead sea turtles as endangered, federal reviewers say they need another six months to take a closer look at the data.
A blowout preventer it wasn't
Editorial
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
In the deepwater oil drilling industry, much faith is placed — or perhaps misplaced — on a large device called the blowout preventer.
EDUCATION
Bills aim to increase number of students eligible for vouchers
By Elaine Silvestrini
Tampa Tribune
Although Gov. Rick Scott proclaimed bold goals in expanding school vouchers, the first voucher bills making their way through legislative committees seek to increase access to a relatively tiny program.
Negron's school voucher bill raises lots of questions
By Eve Samples
TC Palm
Should taxpayer money be funneled to private schools?
A world without high school sports might be closer than you think
By John C. Cotey
St. Petersburg Times
When the school board started talking about eliminating extracurricular activities — including all sports — Tom Willison never believed it would really happen.
Punish Attacks on Fla. Prepaid College
By Glenn Marston
Lakeland Ledger
Misstatements and inappropriate proposals by a state Senate committee chairwoman to close the Florida Prepaid College Plan to new enrollees call into question her leadership.
For-profit colleges leave many with debt but no jobs
By Lindsay Peterson
Tampa Tribune
Westwood College representatives questioned Becky Loring about her hopes for the future. And when she wavered — worried about whether she could afford the $45,000 program — the recruiter used Loring's own words to seal the deal.
School leader's quiet exit speaks loudly
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith has been around long enough to sense when he's not wanted.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Rick Scott: Public housing, governor’s mansion, then…nothing?
By Mark Woods
Florida Times-Union
Gov. Rick Scott has proposed eliminating homeless funding from the state budget.
Why Florida's unemployment rate is so much higher than national average
By Jeff Harrington
St. Petersburg Times
Mild euphoria over a substantial drop in Florida's unemployment rate last week may have overshadowed a harsh reality.
Florida jobless rate drops to 11.5%; Metro Orlando down to 10.8%
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Florida's unemployment rate fell to 11.5 percent in February and Metro Orlando's dropped a full point on some of the strongest job growth in almost four years, officials reported Friday.
Florida settles with Fort Lauderdale firm over foreclosures
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
In its first action against a foreclosure law firm, the Florida Attorney General's office has reached a $2 million settlement with Fort Lauderdale based firm Marshall C. Watson – one of eight so-called foreclosure mills under investigation for handling of home reposessions.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Hospital district fights bills that would add oversight of privatization
By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun Sentinel
As the Florida Legislature's annual session was about to begin, the big public hospital system Broward Health saw a problem: proposed laws to make it difficult — perhaps even impossible — for its plan to transfer its hospitals to a new, nongovernment entity.
Legislature wants to clamp down on lawsuits, entice doctors in bid to rein in Medicaid
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Republican lawmakers struggling to contain Florida's $20 billion-and-growing Medicaid program are taking an unconventional approach: They're going after trial lawyers and the rights of injured patients to sue.
Medicaid med-mal limits OK’d
By Jim Saunders
Health News Florida
Florida lawmakers moved Thursday toward placing new limits on medical-malpractice lawsuits involving Medicaid patients, arguing the move could help draw more doctors into the program.
Change is coming to hospital taxing districts
By Lauren Ritchie
Orlando Sentinel
Stand by for a political war, the likes of which could permanently rearrange the power structure of Lake County.
Williams, Baxley bridge gap to work for blind services
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
With the exuberance of a typical 9-year-old, Alan Williams ignored the rules and ran full speed through the house — only to slam face-first into an open closet door.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Florida City immigrant workers denounce racial profiling and deportation
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Approximately 200 farm workers, students, religious leaders, immigrant advocates and elected officials used a community forum in Florida City Thursday evening to say once again that they wholly reject the current immigration-enforcement bills proposed by Florida legislators.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
Ed Buss wastes little time changing Florida's Department of CorrectionsBy Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Ed Buss doesn't look like a revolutionary.
Mob snitch, Florida legislators agree on changes in disciplining judges
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
While living in suburban Boca Raton waiting to testify against fellow mobsters, Lewis Kasman fell into an unexpected hobby - going after judges and lawyers he believes are corrupting the justice system.
Cash is poor incentive for justice
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Assembly-line justice was such an obvious progression. Yet judges and lawyers feign shock and surprise?
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