PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS
Report card time: Legislators get graded on special political curve
By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Excerpt: From the liberal end of the spectrum, Progress Florida, Florida Watch Action and America Votes recognized 21 members of the Legislature as “Champions of Florida’s Middle Class.” They got the recognition, the groups said, “for their unwavering support on behalf of Florida’s working families.”
FEATURED STORIES
Florida starts lengthy, contested process to redraw state's political maps
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/ St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Brave new world of do-it-yourself mapping
Florida legislators begin three months of public hearings Monday to hear what voters have to say about their once-a-decade task of realigning the state's political maps to reflect shifts in population and growth.
Skeptics question Florida's Medicaid plan
By Barbara Peters Smith
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Deep skepticism permeated a series of recent public hearings across Florida on the state's plan to shift 3 million Medicaid recipients, including nursing home residents, into managed care.
Next steps will signal governor's direction
By Gary Fineout
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
In the next few weeks, Gov. Rick Scott will make a series of key decisions that could affect his sometimes tense relationship with the Legislature, his standing with political and business leaders and ultimately his low public approval ratings.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott's most influential staffer is a mom from Tennessee
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With a mind sharpened by political combat and an ability to inspire loyalty as well as fear, the woman behind Gov. Rick Scott's conservative agenda can be as hard-charging as the bold policies she shapes.
Florida unemployment continues to drop, though more government job cuts loom
By Jeff Harrington
St. Petersburg Times
The government has been playing an oversized role in Florida's struggle to harness its double-digit unemployment rate — for better and worse.
GOP Senate candidates fight their pasts to win conservatives
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Related: Tampa Democrats blast Haridopolos' stances, actions
The Republican U.S. Senate primary is becoming a race to the right as the three leading candidates abandon former moderate policy positions to cater instead to conservative GOP primary voters.
EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Jeff Parker
Florida Today
FLORIDA POLITICS
Democrats could gain power in Florida as state faces redistricting
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida Democrats puzzle and fume over the state's political math, but they see this week's opening round of redistricting public hearings as the start of something they've long awaited.
Florida legislators gird for redistricting battles
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
With a new constitutional mandate to draw fairer legislative and congressional districts, Florida lawmakers this week are launching a 26-stop road show to begin the once-a-decade chore of rejiggering the state's political lines.
Gov. Rick Scott signs more than 40 bills into law
News Service of Florida
St. Petersburg Times
Gov. Rick Scott signed more than 40 bills into law Friday, including a pair of wide-ranging education measures that establish a gift ban on school board members and require school districts to put budget information on their websites.
Blind woman invokes Monty Python in lawsuit against Rick Scott
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott faces a blind woman on food stamps this month at the Florida Supreme Court, where the South Florida resident is challenging Scott's handling of rulemaking by state agencies.
Florida ethics panel drops $200,000 in fines owed by 168 officials after time limit passes
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Commission on Ethics walked away Friday from almost $200,000 in fines owed by dozens of public officials - acknowledging the scofflaws had outlasted a four-year statutory limit on the penalties.
Gov. Scott says Tallahassee must diversify its economy
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Gov. Rick Scott told local Republicans on Friday night that instead of dreading layoffs and cuts in state spending, the capital area needs to diversify its economy as Austin, Texas, has done over the past few decades.
Rick Scott cares! He really does care!
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
For a guy who claims not read newspapers — or care what the polls say or the public thinks — Rick Scott sure is putting a lot of effort into trying to score some good publicity.
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos faces tough questions in Tampa
By Richard Martin
St. Petersburg Times
Senate President Mike Haridopolos says he has been keeping a busy schedule lately, spending as many as six days a week speaking to people across Florida about the Legislature's accomplishments.
Haridopolos Unaware of Kevin White Indictment
By Alex Cook
WUSF Public Radio Tampa
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos said Friday he knew nothing about the indictment of former Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White, but he said he's open to reforming the agency White once led and allegedly used to solicit bribes.
Thrasher's residence in district, but real home might not be
By Jennifer Edwards
Florida Times-Union
It's clear that state Sen. John Thrasher meets the legal residency requirements for living in his Senate district.
Legislature leaves a trail of destruction
By Abel Harding
Florida Times-Union
A decade ago, Nancy Argenziano made her point with a smug lobbyist by delivering a 25-pound box of steaming cow manure to her office.
POLITICAL RACES
Obama, Republicans prepare for another showdown in Florida
By Niall Stanage
The Hill
In the 17 months between now and Election Day 2012, innumerable theories, some esoteric, will be advanced about how President Obama can get reelected.
For Barack Obama in 2012, a different kind of hope
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Immediately inside President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters is a sign counting down days to the election (507 as of today) and a poster that reads, "Respect. Empower. Include. Win."
Will Activist Base Really Sit on Sidelines in ’12?
By Christina Bellantoni
Roll Call
The frustration in the room was palpable.
Puerto Rico trip shows Florida's political sway
Editorial
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Barack Obama's trip to Puerto Rico this week was another sign that the president sees Florida as a key state in his re-election bid next year.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Governor signs 42 bills including measure to exempt farms from permitting
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott signed 42 bills on Friday including HB 421, which exempts agricultural lands from having to receive water management district permits.
Nauseating toxic algae outbreak a grim reminder
By David Guest
Naples Daily News
The nauseating toxic algae outbreak now sliming the Caloosahatchee River is a grim reminder of why we need enforceable water pollution limits in Florida to protect our drinking water and our health.
Form a line in the sand June 25 against oil drilling
By Deborah Wheeler
Ft. Walton Sun
Dave Rauschkolb, founder of Hands Across the Sand, says the organization's work is not done.
Oil spill left shorebirds with no safe place to land
By Travis Griggs
Pensacola News Journal
More than 8,000 birds were collected during the oil spill, including 1,200 birds on Florida shores and waterways, according to a newly released database.
Billboard brouhaha spotlights permit processes
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
A district official with the Florida Department of Transportation made a bad decision in 2009 when permits were granted to Bill Salter Advertising of Milton, giving the company permission to clear thousands of trees on state-owned land without having to mitigate the damage, said former department Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos.
LGBT
Gay-straight alliances get support from feds
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun Sentinel
It just got a bit easier for students to form gay-straight alliances at their schools.
EDUCATION
Cheating suspected on more than 7,000 Fla. exams
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
State education officials have asked 14 school districts to investigate possible cheating on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test after a security company found excessive erasures and other anomalies on more than 7,000 of the 4 million exams administered this year.
Florida falls short of high-quality voluntary pre-kindergarten goals
By Mary Kelli Palka
Florida Times-Union
Nine years after Florida voters approved universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds, it's impossible to know if voters got the high-quality voluntary program they demanded.
Florida's state colleges look at new revenue streams
By Kim Wilmath
St. Petersburg Times
They've slashed their budgets. Eliminated programs and laid off faculty. Upped tuition. Downright begged.
Students at for-profit colleges are taking on debt they can't handle
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
In an editorial a week ago, we pointed out the dangers from the rising debt load on today's college students.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Florida added more jobs last month than any other state
By Jeff Ostrowski
Palm Beach Post
The region's job market improved in May as Palm Beach County's unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in two years.
Employees brace for post-shuttle layoffs
By Valerie Whitney
Daytona Beach News-Journal
The impending shutdown of the space shuttle program after the final scheduled launch July 8 will put thousands of people out of work, including more than 400 Volusia County residents who commute to jobs at the Kennedy Space Center.
States look to Internet taxes to close budget gaps
By Chris Tomlinson
Associated Press
State governments across the country are laying off teachers, closing public libraries and parks, and reducing health care services, but there is one place they could get $23 billion if they could only agree how to do it: Internet retailers such as Amazon.com.
Funding cuts worry public broadcasters statewide
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Millions of Floridians willingly open their wallets each year to help keep public television and radio stations — homes to programs like Sesame Street and Car Talk — on the air.
Florida Governor Rick Scott Versus Big Bird
By Les Coleman
Public News Service Florida
Floridians across the state are wondering why their newly elected governor, Rick Scott, wants to clip Big Bird's wings.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Legislature kills move to cut hospital Medicaid rates again
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
A projected $82 million surplus in Medicaid this year helped spare hospitals what would have been a 7.7 percent retroactive rate cut for the last six months.
Return rate high at 5 big hospitals
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Five of Florida's major public and non-profit hospitals scored so poorly on return rates for Medicare patients that they will get preference this summer in a grant program to fix the problem, government documents show.
Dosed in juvie jail: Troubled doctors hired to treat kids in state custody
By Michael LaForgia
Palm Beach Post
By the time Florida started paying Dr. Gold Smith Dorval to counsel and medicate jailed children, the Pembroke Pines psychiatrist already had experience with kids in state custody.
Feds continue to fight state efforts to cut family planning
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The U.S. Justice Department recently stood behind Planned Parenthood as the state of Indiana attempts to defund them.
Abuse finally gets state's attention
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
After years of ineffective action in the face of abuse and neglect of elderly and disabled Floridians, the Agency for Health Care Administration has finally become more aggressive when confronted with clear evidence of egregious mistreatment.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Cases of U.S. citizens detained over immigration status emerge in Florida
By Alfonso Chardy
Miami Herald
One early morning two weeks ago, Christopher Zambrano was biking home on the 79th Street Causeway near North Bay Village when one of several men in black clothes riding in an SUV ordered him to stop.
Plan to expel illegal immigrants will backfire
By Andres Oppenheimer
Miami Herald
Republicans in Congress have launched a major offensive to force several million undocumented immigrants to leave the United States with a bill that would make it mandatory for U.S. employers to electronically verify workers’ legal status.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
The next judicial logjam: banks being sued over illegal foreclosuresBy Jack McCabe
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Not too long ago, Florida protected homebuyers from being tossed out on the street for not making mortgage payments.
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