Daily Clips for May 3, 2011

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Voter Suppression Bill Pushed by Florida GOP Leaders
By Erica Riggins
Bay News 9 Tampa
At issue is SB 2086, a measure several supervisors of elections in Florida already have estimated would disenfranchise a significant number of people by, among other things, cutting early voting from 14 days to six. Another provision of the legislation, which would bar address or name changes on Election Day, would disproportionately affect women and college students, requiring them to cast "provisional" ballots.

FEATURED STORIES

Sen. Nelson blasts Florida Legislature's 2012 election-law changes
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Bill Nelson criticizes state election bill, cites number of tossed provisional ballots: Mostly True
Related: Legislature has no right making it harder to vote
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson blasted state Republican lawmakers Monday for an election law overhaul that he says will block college students and military personnel from having their votes counted next year when he and President Barack Obama both seek re-election.

Health-care funding stalemate could send session into OT
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Update: Florida House, Senate have budget deal
With tempers flaring and barely 24 hours to go before the deadline for reaching a budget agreement, House and Senate leaders said Monday a stalemate over health-care funding could run the 2011 legislative session into overtime.

Scott drops budget veto threat after deal reached on corporate income taxes
By Gary Fineout
Florida Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott, who has warned for weeks that he may veto the state budget if he did not get a cut in the state’s corporate income tax, has reached a deal that calls for a much smaller cut than what the governor initially advocated.

Florida House's court overhaul bid stripped of most-dramatic changes, as Senate can't get votes
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Senate may be "the most conservative Senate ever," as President Mike Haridopolos boasted at the onset of the legislative session.

Florida Senate to decide controversial immigration bill
By Patricia Mazzei
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
When Sen. J.D. Alexander ran into a throng of ubiquitous immigration advocates in the halls of the Florida Senate on Monday, he made an unusual admission: He plans to vote against a provision in an immigration bill he has been tasked with handling but doesn't much like.

Everglades suffering from sulfate runoff, Methylmercury contamination
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
The use of sulfate in agricultural areas near the Florida Everglades is creating an enormous mercury problem — with seemingly no end in sight.

FLORIDA POLITICS

One last chance to stop 'leadership funds'
By Howard Troxler
St. Petersburg Times
One last time, before the Florida Legislature is scheduled to adjourn this week…

Despite last-minute deal-making, some bills are dead
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
With less than a week left in the legislative session -- if lawmakers don't extend it -- a blizzard of proposals ranging from school prayer to casino resorts are either dead or in serious danger of it.

Red light repeal OK'd by Florida House, barely
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The closest vote of the 2011 session ended Monday with the House approving a repeal of red-light cameras OK'd for cities only a year ago.

Senate rejects push to empower lawmakers to propose changes to the Miami-Dade charter
By Patricia Mazzei
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
State senators on Monday shot down a push to empower local lawmakers — and not just county commissioners — to propose changes to the Miami-Dade charter.

Wasserman Schultz draws on experience to lead Democrats
By Lesley Clark
Miami Herald
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was running late, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Allen West Plays With Fire
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
In the parlance of Internet message boards, a person who says outrageous things to get a rise out of people is a flamethrower, or flamer for short.

Taking out bin Laden is a major moment for President Obama
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
President Barack Obama not only authorized the raid against Osama bin Laden's compound, but he also made it infinitely riskier.

Florida congressional delegation finds common ground
By William Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
The death of Osama bin Laden brought a rare moment of bipartisan unity for the Florida congressional delegation, but subtle differences in their reactions reflected political battle lines and an emerging debate over the U.S. exit strategy from Afghanistan.

Today in Tallahassee: Deadline for a budget deal for on-time finish
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Today is the deadline for Senate and House leaders to agree on a budget if they want to remain on schedule and end the 2011 legislative session Friday.

POLITICAL RACES

Sen. Bennett confirms he’ll run for Congress
By James A. Jones Jr.
Bradenton Herald
Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, confirmed Monday that he will run for the District 11 congressional seat held by Tampa Democrat Kathy Castor.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Proposal eases limits on pollution in Florida waterways
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Gov. Rick Scott recently told federal officials they should leave Florida alone and let it set its own water pollution standards. Scott and other state leaders have boasted that Florida's pollution-control laws have put it ahead of other states.

House passes bill repealing ban on spreading septic tank waste on land
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Tribune
The House on Monday voted to repeal a ban adopted by the Legislature last year on spreading septic tank waste even though the ban was not set to begin until 2016.

Devious ploy to gut Florida's growth laws
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
It's bad enough that the Florida Legislature is determined to turn back the clock and blow up 25 years of bipartisan efforts to manage the state's growth.

EDUCATION

Teachers with no tenure by July 1 likely out of luck
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
Florida teachers who do not have tenure on July 1 will be out of luck, if Gov. Rick Scott signs a bill recently approved by state lawmakers.

Florida House passes virtual learning expansion
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
The Florida House has passed legislation to expand virtual learning in the state.

Scott returns Crist appointee to education board
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott has returned one of former Gov. Charlie Crist's appointees to the Florida State Board of Education.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Frustrations rise as Florida Senate, House argue over how to bridge budget gap
By John Kennedy and Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
With House-Senate budget talks stalled -- or, at least far from the prying eyes of Floridians -- House Speaker Dean Cannon and Mike Haridopolos said Monday that prospects for an on-time finish Friday are dimming.

Budget chairman: Negotiators not trying to sneak in 'paycheck protection'
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee assured legislators today that House and Senate budget negotiators are not trying to sneak a “paycheck protection” bill into the pending compromises on state spending.

House offers compromise on unemployment compensation
By Brent Henzi
Florida Tribune
On the same day that the Senate removed a comprehensive unemployment compensation bill out of the Senate Budget Committee and placed it on the floor, the House says they have offered a compromise on the key issue holding the bill up.

House passes ballot question meant to reduce taxes on commercial properties
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida voters would get a chance to reduce property taxes on commercial buildings, second-homes and other investment dwellings under legislation approved Monday by the House.

Scaled-back professional deregulation plan moves ahead
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott called on the Florida Legislature this year to end job-killing regulations, and they responded.

House passes tax shield for online travel companies
By Jason Garcia
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill Monday designed to shield online-travel companies such as Expedia, Priceline and Orbitz from higher taxes.

Studies debunk myth that the rich flee states with higher tax rates
By Kyle Daly
Florida Independent
Fiscal conservatives have long cited anecdotal and inconclusive evidence that state tax hikes send the rich running to states whose tax policies are more sympathetic to their pocketbooks.

Endeavour delayed again
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
The next possible launch of the space shuttle Endeavour has been pushed back again, this time to no earlier than May 10.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Gov. Scott gets bill to block federal health-care overhaul
Associated Press
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott is getting a bill that would prohibit Floridians from being required to purchase health insurance.

Medicaid rewrite looks headed toward special session
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida lawmakers opened this spring’s legislative session with lofty plans for overhauling Medicaid, the health program serving 2.9 million low-income, elderly and disabled residents and absorbing $22 billion — about one-third of the state budget.

Abortion bickering spills over to unrelated issue
By Aaron Sharockman and Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Democratic Rep. Daphne Campbell of Miami is on the outs with fellow caucus members, so under the enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend logic, she's now a buddy of the GOP.

Florida biomedical research grants likely to be cut
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
Under the best-case scenario, two state-funded programs that award grants for biomedical research will lose $20 million and see that funding transferred to programs that don't have to use the money for research.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Senate postpones immigration law debate
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
With hundreds of Hispanic protestors rallying peacefully in the lobby, the Florida Senate today postponed debate on a package of immigration law changes.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Senate passes Supreme Court overhaul — without expansion plan
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The Senate handed House Speaker Dean Cannon a partial victory Monday in his effort to overhaul the Florida Supreme Court but only after stripping out the most controversial measure.

New private prison in Milton shows Florida cost-savings challenge
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Deep in the Panhandle sits what could be the future of Florida prisons, where inmates in an air-conditioned fortress watch high-def TVs, wear comfortable Crocs-style shoes and take courses in life skills and literacy.