FEATURED STORIES
Republican legislative agenda targets major Democratic donors
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
With an eye toward the 2012 elections, Florida Republicans are mounting the broadest assault on their Democratic counterparts since taking control of the Legislature 15 years ago.
Documents show a Scott push to shutter Citizens
By Paige St. John
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott has secretly pushed to kill Citizens Property Insurance before his first term ends, a goal that alarmed even representatives of private insurance companies seeking to remove Citizens as a competitor, the Herald-Tribune has learned.
Scott, Legislature may clash on budget
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
Related: Scott confident Fla. legislature to phase out corporate income tax
If Gov. Rick Scott makes good on a threat to veto the entire state budget, he will be following in the footsteps of Gov. Claude Kirk, the last executive to go nuclear with his line-item veto power.
GOP vow to cut government, spur private jobs likely to raise other costs for Floridians
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott and Florida's ruling Republicans have vowed to pass a no-new-taxes state budget, slash government spending, cut regulations and spur corporations to create jobs.
Pension payments would gouge state workers at lower end of pay scale
By Lindsay Peterson
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott called attention to the state's largess last month when he launched a website listing state workers with pensions of more than $100,000 a year.
Florida wage growth at lowest level since the Great Depression
By Laura Green
Palm Beach Post
Growth of wages in Florida, where pay already lags the nation, has nearly ground to a halt, reaching its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the state Agency for Workforce Innovation.
EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Andy Marlette
Pensacola News Journal
FLORIDA POLITICS
Do we really need this Legislature?
By Howard Simon
St. Petersburg Times
Does Florida really need a Legislature?
Appeal to people of Florida to stop direct bribery of Legislature
By Howard Troxler
St. Petersburg Times
Let the record and the history books show that no matter what else the 2011 Florida Legislature does, wise or unwise, it has done one thing utterly and morally despicable, and beyond any excuse or redemption.
Get ready for start of redistricting war
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Redistricting battle lines are already forming a week into the yearlong job of redrawing Florida's legislative and congressional maps.
Time is tight for state legislators
By Paul Flemming
Pensacola News Journal
The Florida Legislature has managed to erase the memory of former Gov. Charlie Crist in its first six weeks in session, but nearly everything else remains to be done in the final two weeks.
Today in Tallahassee: Start of whirlwind budget talks
By Jodie Tillman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Today marks the start of the Legislature's two-week whirlwind to close a budget gap worth billions of dollars.
Stop assault on all voters: Even Republican election officials say that Florida doesn't need this
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
This year, Florida's secretary of state told legislators that the November general election had been free of major problems.
Election overhaul is bad for voters
Editorial
St. Augustine Record
Florida's Republican lawmakers want to make it harder for us to vote in the 2012 election cycle and beyond.
POLITICAL RACES
Florida GOP stands firm on decision to keep 2012 primary as scheduled
By Jeremy Wallace
Gainesville Sun
Florida Republicans are not ready to give up their newfound influence in selecting the nation's presidential candidates.
Florida's presidential straw poll could help pick GOP nominee
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Florida Republicans are taking advantage of the state's size and swing-voting status to try to make this the decisive state in the 2012 Republican primary contest.
Much corporate political spending stays hidden
By Noam N. Levey and Kim Geiger
Orlando Sentinel
Despite mounting calls for greater transparency, only a few of the country's 75 leading energy, healthcare and financial services corporations fully disclose political spending, according to a review of company records and state and federal campaign finance reports.
LeMieux can't shake Charlie Crist legacy in Senate bid
By Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
George LeMieux could only think of one major difference between him and Charlie Crist.
BALLOT INITIATIVES
Vindictive Florida lawmakers seeking to revamp constitutional amendment process, high court
Editorial
Naples News
Still stinging from the state Supreme Court's decision last year to remove three legislatively approved constitutional amendments from the ballot, lawmakers are fighting back.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Year later, little in Gulf has changed
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
One year and 206 million gallons of oil later, all that gushes from the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon is blame.
FSU prof warns of oil's ‘tipping points'
By David Adlerstein
Apalachicola Times
A Florida State University oceanographer who questioned early estimates of how much oil and natural gas was flowing into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon discharge, told members of the Apalachicola Riverkeeper last month to focus on small changes in the Gulf that could have a large impact on marine life.
Gov. Rick Scott to U.S. EPA: We'll take care of our own water
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The day after the Florida House passed a bill to ban implementation of water quality standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Rick Scott on Friday asked the agency to rescind a January 2009 determination that the federal rules are necessary for Florida.
State renewable energy bill in doubt
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
Last summer, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill helped inspire a series of conferences dedicated to weaning the state off fossil fuels.
Former EPA chief says ignoring global warming would be costly
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
In these tough economic times, it's no surprise political leaders spend a lot less time talking about combating global warming than about the need to create jobs.
Permitting bill includes "sneak attack" on local rock mining regs
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
In a move described as a "sneak attack" by one environmental opponent, a House bill that supporters say would streamline the state permitting process was amended Thursday to prevent local governments from regulating rock mining.
Gulf Oil Spill Threatens the Bluefin Tuna
By Les Coleman
Public News Service Florida
Every spring, the bluefin tuna uses the northern Gulf of Mexico as spawning grounds, at the exact time and place the BP spill happened a year ago.
Groups plan to sue for species protections
Associated Press
Miami Herald
A coalition of environmental groups has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it intends to sue the agency, claiming it failed to act on a petition asking that more than 400 species in Southeastern streams and rivers be listed as threatened or endangered species.
LGBT
The Offensive Defense
The Progress Report
Think Progress
This week, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) released the details of the House's intervention in defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), responding to President Obama's announcement in January that the Department of Justice would no longer defend the law's constitutionality in court.
EDUCATION
Statewide, schools face cuts
By Lilly Rockwell
St. Augustine Record
Completely virtual 7th period classes. Teacher furloughs. Layoffs of hundreds of school employees. Four-day school weeks. Fewer school buses.
Cuts likely for Bright Futures scholarships
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
The Florida Legislature is poised to cut the popular Bright Futures scholarship program, meaning thousands of college students and their parents will be paying higher costs and less affluent families may have to take out loans, seek other financial aid, get jobs or maybe even go on a low-cost diet.
Dade school district: bill would hurt graduation rate
By Patricia Mazzei and Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
Last year, 28,500 Miami-Dade high school students enrolled in a night school class, many of them to retake a math or English class they had failed, needing the credit to graduate.
Weaker public schools would be the familiar result of new universal voucher scheme
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Late last year, Gov.-elect Rick Scott outlined bold plans for bulldozing Florida's scholastic landscape.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Do Florida's corporate tax breaks pay off in jobs?
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
As the 60-day lawmaking session winds to a close next month, Gov. Rick Scott is relentlessly promoting his "jobs" agenda and exuding confidence that he'll get a massive infusion of tax dollars to reel in new employers.
Fla. budget challenges going down to wire
By Derek Catron
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Joe Sullivan sat at the end of a long table, stacks of advertising stickers before him.
Amid report that Scott tried to kill Citizens Insurance, Fasano asks delay on rate increase
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Saying he wants to hear from Gov. Rick Scott's office and industry lobbyists, a state senator is trying to delay a committee vote today on a bill that would dramatically increase state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. rates while dropping some customers.
Cops urged to boycott Florida Chamber banks
By Mark Schlueb
Orlando Sentinel
The union push to boycott banks whose executives help lead the Florida Chamber of Commerce got a big boost Friday, when a state police union asked its 20,000 members to close their personal accounts.
Paycheck Protection Act: More bogus arguments in Tallahassee for a non-problem
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Related: Provide a paycheck deduction for unions?
The Legislature's "paycheck protection" bills are really political payback.
Florida's pension administrator touts transparency…with exceptions.
By Sydney P. Freedberg
St. Petersburg Times
Want to find out how the state of Florida invests your money?
Bill would erase some consumer protections
By Zac Anderson
Gainesville Sun
They targeted ballroom dance instructors who preyed on lonely widows, a car repair industry that topped the state's consumer complaint list and sketchy movers holding possessions hostage for higher fees.
Central Florida business leaders talk SunRail with Gov. Rick Scott
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Six business leaders from Central Florida met with Gov. Rick Scott on Friday to talk about SunRail.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Medicare fix promises to be painful, costly
By William E. Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
Today's younger generations would pay thousands of dollars more each year for health care when they become seniors and would have to wait longer to qualify for Medicare under a Republican budget plan passed this month by the U.S. House.
With possible eligibility cuts, funding shortages, Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program remains in crisis
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
On Monday, the Florida Department of Health will hold the first of several public debates to decide whether to reduce eligibility to Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (aka ADAP) from 400 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent.
Hospital Privatization on the table
By Sascha Cordner
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
A bill that would put the approval of the public sale of hospitals in the hands of a circuit court judge recently passed in the House Judiciary Committee.
Florida ranks last in nation in providing dental care for poor kids
By Megan O'Matz
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Across Florida, schoolchildren, single moms, janitors, busboys and thousands of others go about their daily lives with missing teeth, untreated toothaches and worsening tooth decay.
Medicaid cuts hurt more than patients
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
In its effort to balance the state budget without raising revenue, the Florida Senate wants to eliminate $1.8 billion in hospitalization coverage for the sickest and poorest patients.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Immigration debate: bill splits GOP Cuban-American base
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
An immigration bill recently introduced in the Florida Legislature is doing something to the Republican Party's Cuban exile base in South Florida that Democrats have had trouble accomplishing over the years.
Hispanics remaking the Deep South
By Halimah Abdullah
Miami Herald
Huge surges among Hispanic populations in the Deep South could mean a political sea change over the next two decades, as immigrants become naturalized and they and their American-born children register to vote.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
Effort to privatize Florida prisons raises questions of costBy Scott Hiaasen
Miami Herald
Related: New private prison in Milton shows Florida cost-savings challenge
Florida lawmakers are poised to make dramatic changes to the state's prison system, turning over as many as 14 prisons to private companies in hopes of trimming the cost of housing the state's criminals.
Stealing justice from South Florida
Editorial
Miami Herald
Under a scary plan in the Florida House, the state attorneys and some public defenders in South Florida counties would find themselves thrown under the financial bus.
Take great care with changes to court
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
Changes should not be made to the Supreme Court of Florida without the most careful and deliberate planning.
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