PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS
Haridopolos drops out of GOP Senate race
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
Excerpt: Progress Florida, a liberal group that has been blasting Haridopolos on a critical website, DirtyHari.org, said it would keep up the pressure on the Senate president. "Sen. Haridopolos announced this morning he's now focusing all of his attention on getting the Florida Senate to ram through even more of Gov. Rick Scott's anti-middle class agenda," said Mark Ferrulo, executive director of Progress Florida. "We will continue to hold him accountable at DirtyHari.org."
Mike Haridopolos Quits U.S. Senate Race, Leaves Boring YouTube Video
By Matthew Hendley
Broward New Times
Excerpt: There were also several other things keeping Haridopolos from comfortably running a senate campaign, which, thanks to Progress Florida, are chronicled on DirtyHari.org.
Jilted Tea Partiers Spelled Mike Haridopolos’ Doom
By Kenric Ward
Sunshine State News
Excerpt: Backed by many in the GOP establishment, he was pilloried for his $150,000 college “book deal” and was even the target of a “Dirty Hari” website produced by the liberal group, Progress Florida.
FEATURED STORIES
Haridopolos' exit from GOP U.S. Senate race preceded by turbulence
By George Bennett, Dara Kam and John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Related: Haridopolos’ early exit raises Greer cloud
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, whose U.S. Senate campaign raised more money but also encountered more turbulence than any of his Republican rivals, abruptly dropped out of the race today.
Anatomy of a meltdown: How Mike Haridopolos U.S. Senate campaign fell apart and ended
By Marc Caputo and Alex Leary
Miami Herald
Related: How the Jim Greer criminal case haunts Mike Haridopolos, adviser Pat Bainter
Related: U.S. Senate math: 3 endorsements + 1 quote = Adam Hasner as future frontrunner
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos' star-crossed campaign for U.S. Senate ended unexpectedly Monday morning, just days after the departure of his two top staffers.
State agencies asked to draw up plans for a 10 percent budget cut
By Gary Fineout
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott and state lawmakers have asked state agencies to draw up plans for another round of deep budget cuts.
Inquiry casts shadow over Rep. Rivera fundraising
By Laura Wides-Munoz
Associated Press
More than six months after state prosecutors confirmed they were investigating U.S. Rep. David Rivera's campaign and personal finances, the South Florida congressman appears to be weathering the legal storm but is struggling to raise money for his 2012 campaign.
Rick Scott RV camp plan sparks uproar
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
After 1,000 angry residents, including several Republican lawmakers, showed up at a public hearing in this west coast town, Gov. Rick Scott this month killed a hastily contrived plan that would have allowed a private vendor to set up an RV camp at a beachfront state park.
Fed board slaps Florida for “unacceptable response” on worker safety
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida drew a rare rebuke Monday from the federal Chemical Safety Board, for failing to enact workplace protections for state and municipal employees, following the deaths in 2006 of two plant workers at a Daytona Beach wastewater plant.
FLORIDA POLITICS
How Florida lawmakers 'nudge' to help their constituents
By Katie Sanders
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The calls and e-mails come to state lawmakers every day.
Buchanan tops in taxpayer-funded mailers
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
The Washington Post today ran a story on several members of Congress who are crying for budget cuts while spending thousands on mailers, radio ads, emails and robo-calls for their respective campaigns.
Allen West: Obama supporters ‘a threat to the gene pool’
By Cooper Levey-Baker
Florida Independent
In a wide-ranging new “weekly update” posted today at Red County, Rep. Allen West, R-Fort Lauderdale, describes the current Washington debate over federal spending in stark terms, calling it “the ultimate ideological clash in America.”
With so many red-light cameras, lawmaker wants longer yellow lights
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
Ever received a ticket from red-light camera after crossing through a yellow signal that seemed too short?
POLITICAL RACES
Mike Haridopolos drops out of U.S. Senate race
By Marc Caputo and Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Related: Haridopolos is hapless and hopeless
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos' star-crossed campaign for U.S. Senate ended unexpectedly Monday morning, following months of missteps and the recent departure of his two top staffers.
Haridopolos drops out of U.S. Senate Race
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Related: With Haridopolos out, who's GOP best hope?
Related editorial: Our take on: FSU's dubious Koch deal & Haridopolos' exit
Facing a disheveling, anti-incumbent primary, Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos dropped out of the U.S. Senate race Monday and said he was "rededicating" himself to his job as a presiding officer in the Legislature.
Key tea party group FreedomWorks endorses Hasner in Senate race
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
FreedomWorks, the Washington-based group that has played a key role in advising and organizing the tea party movement, is endorsing former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner in the 2012 GOP Senate primary after finding “overwhelming” support for Hasner among its Florida members.
Risk of Demings-Grayson primary face-off alarms Democrats
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
For now, former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson and ex-Orlando police Chief Val Demings are just two Democrats from Central Florida running for Congress in 2012: neither allies nor opponents.
BALLOT INITIATIVES
Battle lines drawn in debate over public funding for religious groups
By Lynn Hatter
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
The push to repeal Florida's 125 year old ban on taxpayer funding for religious organizations began in earnest this year when the legislature adopted a proposal to kick the language out of the state's constitution.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Audubon blasts water district for allegedly favoring sugar growers over Everglades
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
The Executive Director of Audubon of Florida has accused the South Florida Water Management District of favoring sugar cane growers over the public water supply and the endangered snail kite when it rationed water from Lake Okeechobee during the current drought.
PSC may approve Progress Energy plan that fails to meet conservation goals
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Florida Public Service Commission staff is recommending approval of a conservation plan submitted by Progress Energy even though it fails to meet energy conservation goals established by the PSC in 2009.
FPL to demolish and replace landmark power plant
By David Fleshler
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The red-striped smokestacks that tower over Port Everglades will crash to the ground in 2013 under a plan by Florida Power & Light to modernize an old, heavily polluting power plant.
Ag. interests: EPA water rules not the ‘proper solution’ to pollution, algal blooms
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
In a July 14 letter sent to the Florida congressional delegation, a large group of industry and agricultural representatives say that a set of water pollution standards are not the solution for algal blooms and fish kills plaguing many parts of Florida.
EDUCATION
Call a session, governor
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Last time Florida's governor called a special session of the Legislature, it turned into a political disaster.
Scott picks Delray health care administrator for Florida Board of Education
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Barbara Feingold, a Delray Beach health care administrator, was named Monday to the state's Board of Education by Gov. Rick Scott.
Bullying reports: 0 in some districts, 4,000 in another
By Sherri Ackerman
Tampa Tribune
To Debbie Johnston, whose son killed himself after years of intimidation by a classmate, not one of Florida's 67 school districts can claim kids there aren't being bullied.
Duval superintendent argued case for schools to governor
By Topher Sanders
Florida Times-Union
As Duval Partners for Excellent Education put off a decision on its future Monday, new light was shed on last week’s stunning decision by the state education commissioner to reverse himself and recommend that Duval County Public Schools get another year to run its most struggling schools.
Hispanic education organization hosts Fort Lauderdale panel with Michelle Rhee, Gerard Robinson
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (Hispanic CREO) held a forum Friday in Fort Lauderdale to discuss how school choice can help boost success for Hispanic students.
FSU attracts new corporate partner
By Tom Flanigan
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
Florida State University has signed up yet another corporate partner.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
PolitiFact: Facts back up the claim of rising black joblessness
By Louis Jacobson
St. Petersburg Times PolitiFact
"The black unemployment rate (has) increased since the recovery has begun."
Republicans in Washington, Tallahassee push tax breaks to create Florida jobs
By William E. Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Republicans in Congress are betting that tax breaks and government spending cuts will spark widespread hiring in their job-starved state.
U.S. transportation secretary releases federal funds for SunRail commuter train
By Dan Tracy
Orlando Sentinel
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood turned loose almost $78 million in federal tax money to help build the much-contested SunRail commuter train during a sun-baked ceremony Monday near one of the system's future depots.
After the space shuttle, uncertainty on where NASA is going next
By Curtis Krueger
St. Petersburg Times
After the space shuttle Atlantis lands on Thursday, NASA wants to blast ahead with ambitious new plans for space entrepreneurs, orbiting telescopes and a journey to Mars.
Known Florida robo-signing names turn up on mortgage documents elsewhere
Staff Report
St. Petersburg Times
Florida names connected to last fall's mortgage "robo-signing'' scandal are turning up on documents again.
Taking Citizens private is no answer
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Citing the potential financial risk of all Floridians being forced to cover property losses after a major hurricane, state officials are pushing to privatize the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Hometown pharmacies fear being elbowed out in Medicaid overhaul
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Independent pharmacies, concerned that Florida’s planned Medicaid overhaul could elbow them out, are forming a consumer-business coalition to keep their side in talks about the drive to put 3 million Floridians into managed care.
Florida Judge Rules HIV Notification Laws Apply Only to Straight People
By Kyle Munzenrieder
Miami New Times
In 1997, the Florida Legislature passed a law that made it a felony for a person with any STD, including HIV, to have sexual intercourse without informing their partner of their status beforehand.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Broward County residents protest plans for privately run immigration detention center
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Over the weekend, residents of Southwest Ranches — a town in western Broward County — protested the proposed construction of a privately run immigration detention center.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
Scott sacks LeMieux law partner from state Supreme Court nominating commissionBy Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
Robert Hackleman, a long-time law partner of Republican U.S. Senate candidate George LeMieux, was not reappointed to the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, Gov. Rick Scott announced today.
Court orders Ten Commandments removed from Dixie courthouse
By Brent Kallestad
Associated Press
Officials in a rural north Florida county must remove a granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the front of its courthouse because it violates the constitution, a federal judge has ruled.
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