Daily Clips for April 13, 2011

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Scott: 'This Is the Best Time to Be Governor'
By Kenric Ward
Sunshine State News
Excerpt: "In my experience, this may be [the] fastest that we as a state have ever moved in the wrong direction," said Damien Filer, of the liberal group Progress Florida. "[Scott] is on a fast track to deconstruct what makes this state a desirable place to live. It's wholesale destruction."

FEATURED STORIES

Governor presses lawmakers for more dramatic overhaul of government worker pensions
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott fired-off another challenge Tuesday to fellow Republicans in the Legislature -- ridiculing House and Senate public pension proposals for not going far enough.

Gov. Rick Scott's reluctance to make legal claim for oil spill spurs outrage
By Katie Sanders
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The rosy scene bothered Tampa lawyer Steve Yerrid.

Scott: I'll cancel cuts to disabilities services
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he will cancel massive cuts in the Agency for Persons with Disabilities if legislators come up with a $174-million budget patch.

State House speaker's court reforms raise questions
By James L. Rosica
Associated Press
As the state's judicial branch is learning, hell hath no fury like a House speaker scorned.

Legislature must remedy Scott's hasty cuts to vulnerable
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
It's been nearly two weeks since Gov. Rick Scott exploited his vague emergency power to force unconscionable cuts of up to 40 percent in reimbursement rates for those who serve the state's developmentally disabled.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Forget tough times, GOP ready to spend $400K on ballot move
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Republican-ruled House and Senate are proposing $1 billion in public school cuts, reductions in health and social service programs and plenty more tight-fisted spending decisions as they struggle to close an almost $3.8 billion budget gap.

Resolution would allow voters to repeal ban on state funding for religious organizations
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The Florida Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday passed Senate Joint Resolution 1218, filed by state Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, that proposes a change to the Florida Constitution that would allow the state to directly fund religious institutions.

Legislature would cut – or eliminate – library funding
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Public library funding may get shelved under budget proposals being considered by the Legislature, potentially leading to reduced hours and the shuttering of some library branches across the state.

Republican Party of Florida raises $4.9 million in first quarter
By Adam C. Smith and Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Staff Writers
Florida's economy may be rocky, but corporations are flooding the coffers of the party that controls virtually every lever of power in state government.

Charlie Crist is a big hit in first law lecture at Stetson
By Becky Bowers
St. Petersburg Times
Charlie Crist tried on a new hat Tuesday, giving his first lecture at Stetson University College of Law, where students lined up to thank the former governor — and ask when he'd be back.

U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland emblematic of rebellious freshmen class
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Congress was roiling over budget cuts and Republicans huddled privately in the Capitol basement, a caucus divided as a government shutdown grew perilously close.

Today in Tallahassee: School lunches, panhandling, gambling
By Katie Sanders
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The House and Senate will continue rolling through a flurry of bills today before their holiday break next week.

POLITICAL RACES

Four candidates to run for South Florida lawmaker's state seat
By Patricia Mazzei
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Four candidates met Tuesday's noon deadline to run for the Florida House seat left open by the resignation of former state Rep. Esteban Bovo.

Jumping the gun on the 2012 presidential primary might not be the wisest move
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Florida's Republican-led Legislature can do itself, and Republican Party voters, a favor by not reprising the 2008 battle over primary dates.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Florida environmentalists uneasy as legislative session enters second half
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
With the Legislative session more than half over, some environmentalists are saying the session already has been bad enough.

Oil spill recovery bill morphs again
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
A $10-million economic development package that House sponsors say will guide Northwest Florida's recovery from the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill morphed again Tuesday in its final committee stop.

Solar energy: Our state falls behind in race
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
In 1905, the state of Florida decided to upgrade Florida Agricultural College in Lake City to a university.

LGBT

Nadine Smith of Equality Florida, others launch Refuse to Lie tax campaign for same-sex couples
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
A new campaign called “Refuse to Lie” has been launched to assist legally married gay couples who plan to ignore the government’s requirement that they lie on their taxes by filing as “single.”

EDUCATION

Bill would allow advertising on school buses
By Jeff Burlew
Florida Capital News
School buses might be the next place you see advertising in a proposal to raise money for education in a time of shrinking government budgets.

Students worry aplenty with FCAT this week; counselors try to help
By Jackie Alexander
Gainesville Sun
For Kimberlee Oakes and her family, the days leading up to the FCAT have been filled with doubt and stress.

Lawmakers may raise the bar on student AP exams
By Denise-Marie Balona
Orlando Sentinel
Thousands of Florida high school students could miss a chance to earn college credit if the state raises the score they need to pass their Advanced Placement exams.

Evolution? Again?
Editorial
Florida Today
As Florida entertains starry visions of world class schools and a technologically savvy 21st-century workforce, science plays an ever more important role in the education of our young people.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Lawmakers working to approve a state spending cap
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
House lawmakers are advancing a proposed constitutional amendment that has already cleared the Senate to put new limits on the power of future legislators to tax and spend.

Officials want Citrus canal to become a port
By Jodie Tillman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Every Florida port wants a piece of the global shipping business: Port Miami. Port of Tampa. Port Citrus.

Kennedy Space Center will get retired Atlantis shuttle
By Scott Powers and Mark K. Matthew
Orlando Sentinel
When space shuttle Atlantis returns from its final mission in July, it's coming home to stay at Kennedy Space Center.

Auto insurance fraud bills advance in Florida Senate
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Two bills designed to fight auto insurance fraud made it through a Senate committee Tuesday, but not before facing criticism as handouts to insurers.

Florida lawmakers consider restricting wine shipments to consumers
By Patricia Mazzei
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Florida lawmakers want to do away with reams of regulation — except when it comes to pinot noir.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Planned Parenthood Rally
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
She has the most popular uterus in the state.

House lawmaker rewrites prescription drug bill to embrace database, increased penalties
By Janet Zink and Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Facing backlash from small pharmacy operators and supporters of a prescription drug monitoring database, Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, on Tuesday unveiled a significant rewrite of his proposal to combat the state's prescription drug abuse epidemic.

Optometrists’ ‘poison pill’ fails in tie
By Jim Saunders
Health News Florida
After years of the Florida Medical Association thwarting the idea, Sen. Mike Bennett got creative Tuesday in his effort to boost drug-prescribing powers for optometrists.

Bill restricting gun talk by doctors advances
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A bill that would restrict what kind of conversations doctors can have with patients about guns in the home has cleared a Senate committee.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Florida’s dueling immigration-enforcement bills to be debated this week
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
Related: Court decision on Arizona immigration law could impact Florida’s efforts
Committees in the Florida House and Senate are set to take up controversial immigration bills this week. The tougher of the two, which is being carried through the House by Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, is now on Thursday’s crowded Economic Affairs Committee agenda, after languishing for weeks.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

The shoddy history of politicized courts
By Martin Dyckman
St. Petersburg Times
Not so long ago, what Floridians were reading about their Supreme Court could have foretold one of John Grisham's conspiratorial novels.

Police mandates for handling eyewitness identification stricken from House bill
By Susan Spencer-Wendel
Palm Beach Post
A strike-all amendment that wipes out mandates for police when handling eyewitness identification was approved by a state House committee Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson cites boot camp death in opposition to bill that would keep videos of murders from public
By Patricia Mazzei
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Don't tell U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson that videos of murders should be kept from the public.

Florida House lawmakers scolded by wrongfully convicted Alan Crotzer
By Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Alan Crotzer, who spent more than 24 years in prison for Tampa rapes he didn't commit, scolded police and House lawmakers Tuesday for changing a bill designed to reform eyewitness identification.