Daily Clips for June 21, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Unions sue Gov. Rick Scott over pension overhaul, employee pay cut
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Before state and local governments take the first dime from the paychecks of teachers, police and state workers to put in the state pension plan, three unions filed suit Monday against Gov. Rick Scott and other trustees of the state retirement plan, alleging the move is an unconstitutional violation and a taking of their personal property.

Florida redistricting meetings start with many questions, few answers
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related column: Silence! Thwarters of democracy at work
Florida legislators were greeted with both hostility and distrust Monday as they opened the first of 26 redistricting hearings in the state's capital, a company town where Republicans control government but Democratic voters are a majority.

Scott begins shakeup of administration
By Gary Fineout
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday began what is likely the first step in a shakeup of his administration.

DEP tells water management districts to cut staff, stop buying land
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is telling the state's five water management districts to cut their regulatory staffs, reduce staff salaries and to stop buying land in a move that one critic describes as a "power grab" by Gov. Rick Scott and DEP.

FLORIDA POLITICS

ACLU, NAACP ask feds to block Florida election law
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
The American Civil Liberties Union and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are among the groups asking the U.S. Justice Department to reject Florida's new election law.

Legislative leaders get earful in first redistricting public hearing
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
The first of 26 public hearings on redistricting got off to a rocky start for Republican legislative leaders this afternoon when a 55-year-old Tallahassee woman, calling herself a "recovering civics teacher," raked them over the coals.

First hearing on Florida redistricting draws complaints about lack of proposed maps
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature's first round of redistricting hearings got off to a rough and at-times partisan start Monday, with voters criticizing current political boundaries and the absence of new maps to review.

Teachers union sues state over new pension law
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The state's largest teachers union joined with other labor organizations Monday in suing Gov. Rick Scott to overturn a new 3 percent payroll contribution demanded of 655,000 government workers who belong to the Florida Retirement System.

Union files lawsuit to block state pension overhaul
By Gary Fineout
Florida Current
A coalition of unions, led by the Florida Education Association, filed a lawsuit looking to block the overhaul of the state pension system passed this spring by legislators.

POLITICAL RACES

2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa prepares for surge of power and press
By Richard Danielson
St. Petersburg Times
The 2012 Republican National Convention is still more than a year away, but even early preparations suggest its sheer scale and complexity.

Jeb Bush: No run in 2012, but I don't rule out 2016
By Katty Kay
BBC News
Jeb Bush is the son who was groomed for the presidency.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

U.S. Nuclear Regulators Weaken Safety Rules, Fail To Enforce Them: AP Investigation
By Jeff Donn
Associated Press
Related: Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites
Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

PSC executive director vacancy attracts 129 applicants
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The application period for the executive director position at the Florida Public Service Commission closed Monday with 129 applications for the job.

EDUCATION

Finalists for state education post make their pitch
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
St. Petersburg Times
The five finalists to become Florida's next education commissioner pitched themselves to the State Board of Education Monday during a five-hour meeting at the Tampa Airport Marriott.

Florida legislative changes tough on school finances
By Angeline Taylor
Bradenton Herald
Manatee School Board members continued to struggle Monday with the bad news that state funding for education isn’t keeping pace with inflation.

Broward School District could lose $30 million because of fight with union
By Cara Fitzpatrick
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Already grappling with a $171 million budget shortfall, the Broward County School District is poised to lose another $30 million in federal funding because it can’t resolve a labor battle with the teachers union.

Scholarship cut for 1,400 of Florida's top students
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The cost of college just went up by an unexpected $1,500 for some of Florida's top students.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida Gov. Scott says regulations stifle jobs
By William E. Gibson
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott told business leaders and fellow governors on Monday that government regulations are choking business expansion in Florida and depriving the state of new jobs.

SunRail funding topic of DOT visit
By Derek Catron
Daytona Beach News Journal
Florida's secretary of transportation will be in Volusia County next week, just days before the governor has promised to rule on a long-proposed commuter rail line through Central Florida.

South Florida water district's management staff to be cut by 61 percent
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
In the midst of a record-breaking drought, the agency responsible for South Florida's water supply also was hit last week by threats of deep cuts to its management force and drastic directives from top environmental officials in Tallahassee.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

State asks to extend Medicaid reform experiment for another month
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
The Agency for Health Care Administration signed paperwork for the federal government on Monday asking for a 30-day extension on its five-year Medicaid Reform experiment in five Florida counties.

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.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Hackers crash web sites to protest Orlando's homeless feeding restrictions
By David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
Computer hackers shut down the Orlando Chamber of Commerce's web site for most of the day Monday and posted a "boycott Orlando" message on a major theme park's Internet page to protest the homeless-feeding policies of Mayor Buddy Dyer.