FEATURED STORIES
Scott gets bill cutting early voting days and making it tougher to register voters
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
An elections overhaul that would cut the number of days for early voting nearly in half and impose tougher restrictions on groups registering voters is headed to Gov. Rick Scott.
Florida Senate passes two bills restricting abortion
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida Senate, after a morning of impassioned debate, gave final approval Thursday to two bills restricting abortion, but not before a member of the chamber's Republican leadership team blasted her colleagues for spending so much time on the issue.
House approves corporate tax cut for Gov. Rick Scott
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With back-slapping praise — and Republicans applauding Democrats — the Florida House on Thursday sent a $30 million corporate income tax cut to Gov. Rick Scott.
Sweeping rewrite of Medicaid awaits Legislature on Friday
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida Senate unveiled a long-awaited Medicaid reform plan Thursday, a compromise with the House that will push the majority of the state's 2.9 million low-income and elderly recipients into a health maintenance organization or patient service network in an attempt to curtail the program's $22 billion price tag.
Drug testing for welfare recipients bill heads to governor
By Jodie Tillman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Applying for welfare benefits in Florida? Soon you'll need to get drug tested.
House GOP votes to undo a key environmental-protection law
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
The Republican-dominated House voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to reverse a fundamental concept that has guided Florida environmental law for the past 30 years.
BEST OF THE BLOGS
Where Have All the Good Men Gone? Florida Women Hold Out for a Hero in the Final Days of Session
By R.S. Pienta
Florida Progressive Coalition
Women in Florida are asking, “where is the leadership on women’s rights?”
Marco Rubio Finds Room For His Foot AND His Talking Points In His Mouth All At Once
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
It's hard to believe that Marco Rubio could manage to find room in his mouth for his foot, what with all those talking points in there, but he still managed to get the job done yesterday on Meet The Press while the President was carrying out his campaign promise to get Osama Bin Laden.
Breaking News: Florida Inches Closer to Becoming the Next Police State
By Eddie Garcia
Campus Progress
Activists camped out in front of Florida House Majority Leader Lopez-Cantera's district office last night, vowing to stay on site through the final hours of the legislative session.
Zealots in the House
By Jake
Rantings From Florida
Sometimes I really wonder if there should be a Florida House. Usually, those moments are brought on by the passage of such bills as the recent abortion restrictions which got passed out of the chamber.
Assault on environment led by the ill-informed, shortsighted
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
In the Orlando Sentinel, Scott Maxwell has it exactly right: legislators in Tallahassee are caught in a tidal wave of ignorance.
FLORIDA POLITICS
Sweeping tax and spending votes to mark Legislature's final day
By Aaron Deslatte and Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Florida lawmakers are entering the final day of a riveting, divisive two-month legislative session with sweeping tax and spending decisions to make, and the fate of a mammoth overhaul of Florida's budget-busting Medicaid program to decide.
Florida Legislature passes rewritten election rules critics say aim to suppress voter turnout
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
In a move critics say is aimed at helping Republican chances in 2012, the Legislature on Thursday rewrote the rules for voting in Florida.
A novel argument for Florida elections bill: Why should voting be easy?
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
Republicans who support a massive and controversial elections bill have yet to present evidence of fraud to justify changes that advocacy groups have said would make it more difficult for people — especially young people — to vote.
Senate to vote on state funding of church-backed social services
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
The Florida Senate advanced a constitutional amendment Thursday that would allow state funds to be used by church-related groups for social services.
Backsliding after the Sansom scandal?
By Gary Fineout
The Fine Print
One of the things that did change in the wake of the arrest of former House Speaker Ray Sansom is that lawmakers changed the way they handled the state budget.
Florida Lawmakers Pass Pork and Hypocrisy
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
So here we are, halfway through the constitutionally mandated 72-hour dead period between the time when the state budget is proposed and when it’s voted on.
POLITICAL RACES
Energized Jacksonville electorate flood early-voting sites to cast mayoral ballots
By Jim Schoettler and Timothy J. Gibbons
Florida Times-Union
If current trends continue, by the beginning of next week more early and absentee votes will be cast in Jacksonville's runoff election than were submitted during the entire two-week early-voting period before the city's first municipal election in March.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Activists appalled by environmental-law changes in Florida
By Kevin Spear
Orlando Sentinel
As rollbacks of protections for water, wildlife and open spaces gained momentum this week during the final days of the legislative session, the head of Audubon of Florida, a group known for diplomacy and manners, finally lost his temper.
Final day of session: Energy dead but growth overhaul, septic bills very much alive
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Growth management, fertilizer and septic tanks are some of the yummy issues awaiting action by the Legislature on Friday, its final scheduled day of the regular session.
Bill would reverse ban on spraying sewage on farmland
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Every year, more than 90 companies across Florida pump the waste from about 100,000 septic tanks.
House votes to make it harder for the public to participate in environmental decision-making
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
The Florida House of Representatives just gutted the power of ordinary citizens to challenge decisions made by environmental regulators. In a 79-36 vote, members approved changes Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, made to a rulemaking bill that is now headed to the governor.
Budget sinks aquatic preserve protectors
By Kimberly Blair
Pensacola News Journal
Gulf Breeze resident Robert Turpin's earliest childhood memories include harvesting scallops in a cove near Fort McRee with his family.
The Showdown Over Big Oil
The Progress Report
Think Progress
While Americans are continually struggling to manage their financial burdens, one group is celebrating rising gas prices: Big Oil.
LGBT
Anti-gay groups plan increased spending, activity through 2012
By Andy Birkey
American Independent
Anti-gay rights groups around the country will see a cash infusion over the next two years through a plan called “Ignite an Enduring Cultural Transformation.”
EDUCATION
Lawmakers took 'wrecking ball' to Florida schools, union chief says
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
The Orange County school district shines as an example of the "good that's going on in education" despite "tragic" budget cuts and an effort by Tallahassee power brokers to demoralize and denigrate teachers, union leader Randi Weingarten said Thursday.
Pinellas will not renew contracts of 1,100 rookie teachers
By Ron Matus and Tom Marshall
St. Petersburg Times
Months of anxiety over school budget cuts flared to new levels Thursday on both sides of Tampa Bay.
Rumors swirl about looming teacher layoffs
By Cara Fitzpatrick
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Broward School Board is looking at $81 million in budget cuts in the schools, and that means teachers are going to lose their jobs.
Florida's economy: Education is key to future
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
Whenever thousands of students drop out of Florida's high schools each year, the state is not only left with emptier classrooms but with an uncertain economic future.
School choice comes with a cost
Editorial
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
At a time when lawmakers propose deep cuts to public schools and higher education, the Republican-controlled Legislature wants to pass measures that will impose additional costs to K-12 education in the name of school choice.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Report: Reduction to unemployment benefits would have greatest impact on black and Latino communities
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
According to a new report, the reduction to unemployment benefits being negotiated this week in the Florida legislature will have a greater impact on black and Latino workers than on their white counterparts.
Tax cuts for businesses praised
By Zac Anderson
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott wanted to phase out Florida's $2 billion in corporate income tax collections over seven years.
Property insurance overhaul headed to Gov. Rick Scott
Associated Press
St. Petersburg Times
A property insurance overhaul aimed at creating more competition in the private marketplace and cutting down on fraudulent sinkhole claims is on its way to Gov. Rick Scott.
More arts funding in state budget
By Jay Handelman
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
While many programs across Florida face drastic state cuts, legislators are poised to double the amount of money spent on arts and culture in the new budget.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
After weeks of secret talks, Fla. lawmakers on verge of biggest Medicaid change in state history
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
State lawmakers Friday are poised to approve a sweeping overhaul of Medicaid, dramatically changing health coverage for 2.9 million low-income, elderly and developmentally disabled Floridians in a bid to squeeze savings out of the $22 billion program.
Budget deal gives nursing homes lower staffing mandates
By Aaron Deslatte
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Florida nursing homes serving Medicaid patients are taking significant reimbursement cuts to the tune of $187 million in the $69.6 billion budget that lawmakers are preparing to pass on Friday.
Watered-down ultrasound bill passes with fierce bipartisan opposition
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Related: Senate approves parental-notification-for-abortion bill, with tight restrictions on judicial bypasses
Bipartisan opposition sprang up today during a Florida Senate debate over a bill that requires clinics to offer ultrasounds to women seeking abortions.
Two more abortion bills headed to Gov. Rick Scott
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With the passage of two bills by the Senate on Thursday, three antiabortion measures are now headed to Gov. Rick Scott.
Florida pill-mill crackdown held up by dispute over doctors' offices
By Janet Zink and Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A controversial bill intended to combat the state's prescription drug-abuse woes appeared in jeopardy Thursday in part due to a dispute tied to the high-powered lobbying of two workers' comp doctors.
Pill mill bill on life support?
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
GOP legislative leaders are in a standoff on a pill mill crackdown with less than 36 hours left until the session is expected to end.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Gov. Scott meets with immigration-reform protestors
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Gov. Rick Scott, who promised to bring an Arizona-style immigration law to Florida, chatted briefly with protestors opposing a pending crackdown on illegal immigration today at the state Capitol today and said he still hopes state lawmakers can come up with a compromise on the hotly debated issue.
The death of immigration reform: Just what Big Business wants
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Was illegal immigration a top issue for you in last year's campaign?
Leave immigration to the feds
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Despite months of rhetoric, Florida's Republican-led Legislature looks unlikely to pass so-called immigration reform before adjourning late today.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
Legislature passes overhaul of state courtsAssociated Press
Tampa Tribune
Florida lawmakers have put a watered down court-system overhaul on the November 2012 ballot, where it'll need 60 percent voter approval.
Is Gov. Rick Scott Rewarding Donors With Private Prison Plan?
By Alex Seitz-Wald
Think Progress
Even before he was in office, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) proposed privatizing much of Florida’s prison system, and state House and Senate negotiators agreed to do just that Monday as legislators hammer out a budget.
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