Daily Clips for April 12, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Ethics complaint filed against Gov. Rick Scott
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A Clearwater activist has filed an ethics complaint accusing Gov. Rick Scott of using his office to benefit the chain of walk-in clinics he founded.

Gov. Scott trying to sell off family stake in clinics
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
A spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott said Monday that the former health care executive is in the process of divesting his family’s shares of Solantic, the urgent care chain that Scott co-founded in 2001, to eliminate any perception of a conflict of interest.

Scott to leaders: No biz tax breaks would be “big mistake”
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott continued to talk tough on tax breaks Monday, saying lawmakers would be making a “mistake,” if they failed to endorse almost $2 billion in givebacks to corporations and property-owners even as they enact deep cuts to schools, health and social programs.

Sorry, governor, but it's always going to be cheaper to do business somewhere else
By Robert Trigaux
St. Petersburg Times
Did Florida really sign up for a fool's game of trying to make Florida the cheapest place to do business?

BP gives Florida $30 million for tourism; Scott says he doesn't want state to join oil spill lawsuit
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
As the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster approaches, the Florida Panhandle got a $30 million boost from BP to help lure tourists back to the seven counties hardest hit by the April 20 oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

House leaders deem recognizing birth control too 'controversial'
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
House legislative leaders Monday quashed a proposal to create a "Birth Control Matters Day," a day before Planned Parenthood organizers were due in Tallahassee to rally against several legislative measures related to abortion rights.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Today in Tallahassee: Hundreds of bills under consideration
By Katie Sanders
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The House and Senate will consider hundreds of bills and confirm more of Gov. Rick Scott's appointees in committee meetings today as they work ahead of the holidays next week.

Proposal to ease gift ban moves ahead
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
An effort to legalize lobbyist gift-giving surprisingly cleared its first hurdle Monday despite warnings by opponents that it won't look good back home in a year of $4 billion in budget cuts.

Adam Hasner facing ethics complaint
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
First, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos was admonished by the Florida Senate for failing to accurately disclose his income on state ethics forms.

Developer bragged about ease of bribing elected officials, consultant testifies
By Paula McMahon
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
A Broward developer, who’s already pleaded guilty to paying off one politician, bragged to a Democratic campaign consultant about how easy it was to pay off local elected officials, according to sworn testimony released Monday by Broward prosecutors.

Crist, Byrne settle lawsuit over campaign song
By Mitch Stacy
Associated Press
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has settled a lawsuit filed by Talking Heads singer David Byrne after Crist used one of the group's songs without permission in a campaign ad last year, both parties confirmed Monday.

POLITICAL RACES

Fla GOP raises nearly $5-mil
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
The Florida GOP's quarterly campaign report is up and it's a monster - $4.9-million, compared to just $1.2-million for Florida Democrats.

Haridopolos and session fundraising part 2
By Gary Fineout
The Fine Print
Senate President Mike Haridopolos is expected to announce a significant fundraising haul since he jumped into the race for U.S. Senate.

Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee squeezing Barack Obama in Florida
By Juana Summers
Politico
Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are both serious threats to President Barack Obama’s hope of winning the critical swing state of Florida, according to a new poll.

Times to host GOP presidential primary debate with NBC, National Journal and Florida Council of 100
Staff Report
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times, NBC News, National Journal and the Florida Council of 100 announced Monday that they will co-sponsor a Republican presidential primary debate early next year.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Senate committee chairman Siplin threatens to subpoena no-show Feinberg
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
With the April 20 anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill fast approaching, a Senate committee chairman threatened this afternoon to subpoena BP claims czar Kenneth Feinberg, who was a no-show at his committee meeting.

Coast Guard unprepared in oil spill response
By Travis Griggs
Pensacola News Journal
Inadequate planning, complicated command structures and communication failures plagued response efforts to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to an internal Coast Guard review.

LGBT

Christian conservative strategy proposal: ‘Stop using the word gay’
By Sofia Resnick
Florida Independent
The first step for Christian conservatives to win the war against the gay movement is to rebrand the terms, said a few panelists at this weekend’s The Awakening conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

EDUCATION

Vouchers for all? Maybe not this year, but soon
By Kim MacQueen
Florida Tribune
During the 2010 election, Gov. Rick Scott campaigned on a platform of expanding choice in Florida's K-12 schools, and briefly flirted with a "vouchers for all"-type program, which would open up private school vouchers to every Florida family.

ZIP code edges are battle lines in FCAT war
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post
Monday was a big day in the Cerabino household because it marked the beginning of the high-stakes testing season, that annual pageant of collective lunacy when we pretend that our little fifth-grade foot soldier is an important combatant fighting for the greater glory of his school in the Great FCAT War of 2011.

Tallahassee is failing the grade
Editorial
Miami Herald
As Florida public school students try to quell their testing jitters over the next two weeks during the annual FCAT migraine challenge, lawmakers in Tallahassee are offering little to calm parents and taxpayers’ fears that the annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and other proposed “reforms” will ensure success for more children.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Gov. Scott's power grab goes after tourism
By Beth Kassab
Orlando Sentinel
The size of this power grab looks like one for the record books.

Gov. Rick Scott takes credit for helping avert federal shutdown: Full Flop
By Aaron Sharockman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact
Here's one you probably didn't catch on CNN -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott helped avoid the federal government shutdown.

Speaker: Fla. CEOs not seeking corporate tax cut
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
No Florida CEOs that House Speaker Dean Cannon said he has talked to have asked for the corporate income tax cuts Gov. Rick Scott has been pushing as part of his job-creation agenda.

Buckethead radio show challenges Scott to ‘get to work’
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott is fond of the phrase “Let’s Get to Work,” using it on the campaign trail throughout the fall and now in the governor’s office.

Fla. lawmakers may redo federal budget amendment
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos wants a do-over for a resolution seeking a constitutional convention to pass an amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budget.

PSC chairman calls his drinks with utility prez, a “rookie mistake”
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott’s appointment of four new state utility regulators was unanimously approved Monday by a Senate panel, despite criticism from a ratepayers organization about Chairman Art Graham’s huddling with a water company’s lobbyist during a Washington, D.C. conference.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

From the U Word, a Political Storm Rages in Florida
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Orlando legislator Scott Randolph’s wife was obviously frustrated with the Republican super majority’s insistence that they were the party of smaller government.

Medicaid fight brings out big-time lobbyists
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
The GOP-led Legislature came to Tallahassee this spring determined to revamp the state's Medicaid program, which legislators said was spiraling out of control and taking over the budget.

Low-profile issue with big $$$
By Jim Saunders
Health News Florida
Less than a year after former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar proposal, the Florida Senate has approved a bill that would limit how much doctors can charge for dispensing drugs to workers-compensation patients.

Agencies brace for deep cuts to disabled services
By Kari C. Barlow
Northwest Florida Daily News
Developmentally disabled adults in Okaloosa and Walton counties could lose a number of vital services if the state follows through on millions of dollars in proposed budget cuts.

Damage cap debate shifts to disability providers
By Margie Menzel
News Service of Florida
A child advocacy group that is fighting liability limits for children in the state foster care system is taking aim at a similar measure seeking to provide lawsuit immunity for disability service providers.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Bill gives 'dangerous' dogs another chance
By Patricia Mazzei
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Sen. Jim Norman, the Tampa Republican who drew fire from animal-rights groups earlier in the lawmaking session, took part in a markedly different event Monday, this time siding with the activists.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida bills on eyewitness ID change, advance
By Susan Spencer-Wendel
Palm Beach Post
Legislative bills establishing procedures for eyewitness identification - the leading cause of wrongful convictions - are moving through state House and Senate subcommittees on their way to potentially becoming law.

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty hires $715-an-hour attorney to defend him in lawsuit
By Janet Zink and Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has hired a $715-an-hour attorney to defend him in a lawsuit filed by a Texas-based insurance company, an expense that outrages Senate President Mike Haridopolos.