FEATURED STORIES
Florida House passes elections law overhaul
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related editorial: Partisan effort to tilt votes
The Florida House passed a sweeping overhaul of election laws Thursday that Republicans say will streamline voting machinery and Democrats say will make it harder for people to vote in the nation's biggest battleground state in 2012.
House OKs bill cutting state involvement in land use issues
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
The House voted Thursday to shrink the state's control over land use in Florida, a move that supporters lauded as a rightful return to "home rule" but critics have blasted as turning the state into a free-for-all for developers.
Advocates decry cost of mental-health cuts
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Big cuts in mental-health and drug-abuse spending will wind up costing the state far more in emergency services and child care, advocates for people with mental illness and addictions said Thursday.
Florida House passes sweeping prescription drug bill
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With a nearly unanimous vote, the House of Representatives on Thursday approved a sweeping bill to combat Florida's prescription drug abuse epidemic.
A Regulatory Disaster
By Sue Sturgis and Chris Kromm
Facing South
Related: Poisoned in the Gulf
Following the BP oil disaster, federal agencies took steps that may have further compromised the health of cleanup workers and Gulf Coast residents.
BEST OF THE BLOGS
Florida’s descent into the pre civil rights era continues: voting rights for the military shredded too
By Joy-Ann Reid
The Reid Report
As part of their push to restrict voting rights in the state to older white Republicans, Florida’s Republican legislators have resisted even attempts to preserve the ability of members of the military to change their address on election day.
Bare Naked Choices: Florida’s Failed Education Experiment
By Julie Delegal
Jacksonville Ledger
Conservative operative Adam Hollingsworth, defending the proposed budget that slashes $1.75 billion from public education, insists that public schools are only one part of a spectrum of “choices” available to students in Florida.
Governor Scott and The Supremes
By Geniusofdespair
Eye on Miami
There are 9 justices on the Supreme Court of the U.S. 5 are conservative and 4 are liberal. Once in a while Justice Anthony Kennedy is a swing from the conservative side.
Eliminate Term Limits
By Jake
Rantings From Florida
It is no secret in Tallahassee that term limits have not been what they were cracked up to be. Imposed by voters in the late 90s, the idea had its appeal to voters across the spectrum.
Rick Scott: Florida Won't Join Oil Lawsuit, Another Day, Another Conflict Of Interest?
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
Florida Governor Rick "Run The Government Like A Business" Scott chose the eve of the one year anniversary of the BP oil spill to give Transocean, the business, a break by announcing that Florida won't join the other Gulf states in a lawsuit against the company, just as he had hinted last week.
Say what? Rubio cites Jesse Helms as his ‘foreign policy model’
By Peter Schorsch
St. Petersblog 2.0
I could barely breathe after reading the first few paragraphs of this National Review Online story in which Marco Rubio states that the late Senator Jesse Helms is his ‘foreign policy mentor’.
FLORIDA POLITICS
Gov. Scott Coached During TV Interviews
Staff Report
WESH 2 News Orlando
Gov. Rick Scott declined to be part of a lawsuit against the company that owned the oil well involved in a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico one year ago.
Cannon: Don’t get “hung up” on 60-day session
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
This week’s cooling-off period between the House and Senate hasn’t served to help frame terms of a budget agreement between the sides, now separated by $3.3 billion in their bottom lines.
Florida Legislature passes dramatic overhaul of state election law
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Related editorial: State Republicans' election reforms all about strengthening the GOP
Florida lawmakers passed a dramatic overhaul of state election law Thursday night, a move that GOP legislators say will bring integrity to the process and one that Democrats counter will disenfranchise voters across the state.
Fla. GOP Pushes Controversial Voting Law Changes
By Greg Allen
NPR
It's still a year and a half until the presidential election, but members of Florida's Legislature are already jockeying over who will be able to vote and how.
Today in Tallahassee: Legislature breaks for holiday
By Aaron Sharockman
St. Petersburg Times
House members return to their districts today as the Legislature is off in observance of the Easter holiday.
POLITICAL RACES
Shhhh, Adam Hasner's officially in U.S. Senate race
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Adam Hasner has formally entered the U.S. Senate race.
Trump's brash style upstages GOP hopefuls
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
It's not just about Donald Trump's celebrity or Barack Obama's birth certificate.
Rep. Ron Paul, still the iconoclast, visits Tallahassee
By Aaron Sharockman
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the quixotic Republican from Texas, doesn’t know anything about Gov. Rick Scott, can’t remember much about U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson or name one of the Republicans challenging Nelson in 2012.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Fla. gets $100M for oil cleanup
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Florida will get a $100 million "down payment" from BP Oil for cleaning up environmental damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon spill last year, state and federal officials said Thursday.
State CFO: BP intentionally slow so claimants will abandon process
By Louis Cooper
Pensacola News Journal
The state's chief financial officer believes the Gulf Coast Claims Facility is deliberately stalling claims from those who say they were injured by the BP oil spill.
The Costs Of Fossil Fuel Dependence
The Progress Report
Think Progress
Reminding us all how dangerous the dependence on fossil fuel can be, yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico -- the "greatest man-made disaster" since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center -- which resulted in the loss of eleven men, crippled the livelihood of Gulf residents, and severely deteriorated the Gulf's fragile ecosystem.
Rollback of growth limits passes in Fla. House
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
The Republican-controlled Florida House handed business interests and Gov. Rick Scott a victory Thursday by passing legislation that would lift most state controls over urban sprawl, leaving it up to local governments to deal with that issue.
Toxic emissions fell in Florida as economy plunged
By Kevin Spear
Orlando Sentinel
Styrene causes nausea, is under investigation as a possible cause of cancer and is an ingredient in the fiberglass used to manufacture boats.
Everglades wading-bird nesting increases amid drought
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Drought conditions straining South Florida water supplies actually could lead to a wading-bird baby boom in the Everglades.
EDUCATION
Parents, teachers rail against weight given to students' test results
By Jason Schultz
Palm Beach Post
Hundreds of angry parents and teachers from Palm Beach and Broward counties packed a middle school auditorium tonight to tell a top U.S. Department of Education official that the state and federal governments need to stop evaluating teachers and students based on test results.
Florida lawmakers grapple over hundreds of millions in higher ed spending
By Jodie Tillman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Here's a big item on the Legislature's to-do list: Agreeing how much to spend on higher education.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Florida Chamber goes hard after unions
By Beth Kassab
Orlando Sentinel
Unions are hardly a force in Florida, where cheap labor, low taxes and its right-to-work status make it one of the most employer-friendly states in the nation.
Budget cuts hit home for 80-plus women in Santa Fe program
By Jackie Alexander
Gainesville Sun
Avis Gay, 55, knows she has lived a wild and varied life.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Flying blind on crime
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
After three years in a federal pen, dentist David Goldston is back in practice in Polk City.
House wants state to self-insure
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
A House committee easily approved a bill Wednesday that would overhaul the state employee health-insurance system, but the issue hinges on upcoming budget negotiations.
House passes pill mill crackdown
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
By a 116-1, the Florida House approved its plan to crack down on rogue doctors and rein in prescription drug abuse.
House speaker: 'No way' state can stop felons running summer camps
By Michael LaForgia
Palm Beach Post
Despite vowing to close a loophole in state law that allows anyone, even a convicted child molester, to run a summer camp for Florida children, top state lawmakers have failed to act on the issue.
State Rep. Schwartz: Abortion-restricting constitutional amendment a GOP ‘get out the vote’ maneuver
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
State Rep. Elaine Schwartz, D-Hollywood, today expressed frustration with what she has called the Florida state legislature’s “war against women.”
Proposed Medicare cuts bring out political swords
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
The intensifying debate on Capitol Hill over the national debt has seemed abstract for many Americans, with incomprehensibly big numbers and concepts.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Activists vow court fight against anti-immigrant legislation
By Alfonso Chardy
El Nuevo Herald
Immigrant rights activists plan to sue the state if the Legislature passes legislation that would impose state controls on undocumented immigrants, including one that would make it a misdemeanor crime to be illegally in Florida.
House shoots down measure to restore voting rights for felons
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
State Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahasee, offered an amendment to an omnibus elections bill that would have rolled back changes approved recently by the state Cabinet that make it harder for ex-felons to vote.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
Bills would ban restraints on some pregnant inmatesBy Elaine Silvestrini
Tampa Tribune
A national human rights group in October gave Florida an F for its policies regarding shackling pregnant inmates.
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