Daily Clips for July 20, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

100 groups fight Medicaid waiver
By Brittany Davis
Health News Florida
A letter asking the Obama administration to reject Florida's Medicaid overhaul has been signed by more than 100 state organizations, including some medical societies and a wing of the Florida Bar.

Police union sues Gov. Rick Scott over private prison plan
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The union that represents state correctional officers is suing Gov. Rick Scott's administration, seeking to derail a massive privatization of state prison operations in 18 South Florida counties.

Attorney general's ouster of 2 top investigators raises troubling questions
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
A few months ago, two of Florida's assistant attorneys general were blowing the lid off foreclosure fraud in this state.

Republican tides recedes
By David R. Colburn
St. Petersburg Times
With the 2012 national election 16 months away, Republicans are suddenly getting anxious about its outcome and about the potential results for Florida, in particular.

Exit Haridopolos
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott called Mike Haridopolos' withdrawal from the U.S. Senate campaign a "sad day for Florida." Sad day? Hardly.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Scott, Browning keep pushing to have elections case dismissed
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
A ruling on the American Civil Liberties Union’s case challenging the implementation of Florida’s new elections law has still not come down, and lawyers for Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Secretary of State Kurt Browning renewed their push to get the case dismissed in a filing Monday.

Rep. Allen West's tears into fellow Rep. Wasserman Schultz in e-mail
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Florida was at war on the floor of the U.S. House on Tuesday.

Haridopolos aide follows MacNamara and becomes Scott's deputy chief of staff
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times
Chris Finkbeiner, the 26-year-old deputy chief of staff to Senate President Mike Haridopolos, has joined Gov. Rick Scott's staff as his new deputy chief of staff for policy, replacing Mary Anne Carter.

Campaign cash flying from Northeast Florida
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
Northeast Florida residents and companies are pouring campaign cash into Florida's political system at a much faster rate than they did in the last election cycle — and it's not even close.

Big spender Vern Buchanan
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Count U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan among those self-professed fiscal conservatives in Washington who want the country to "do as I say, not as I do."

One job enough for Haridopolos
Editorial
Ft. Myers News-Press
Now that Mike Haridopolos has abandoned his troubled run for the U.S. Senate, he needs to focus full-time on the job he was chosen for - running the Florida Senate.

POLITICAL RACES

Nelson still tough to beat with Haridopolos out
By Victor Schaffner
Orlando Sentinel
Does Mike Haridopolos’ decision yesterday to quit the race for the U.S. Senate fundamentally change what the incumbent, Democrat Bill Nelson, can expect to face in the November 2012 general election?

Is Connie Mack rethinking U.S. Senate?
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
U.S. Rep. Connie Mack was seen today in Washington meeting with political strategist Arthur Finkelstein, raising the possibility he could be rethinking his decision not to run for U.S. Senate one day after Mike Haridopolos quit the race.

Former Ruth's Chris CEO Craig Miller says he 'created over 40,000 jobs': Barely True
By Becky Bowers
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact
Usually when politicians claim that they created jobs, they are talking about jobs created by the private sector while they held public office.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Teachers union aims to block attempt to lift ban on tax money for religious organizations
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
The Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, tomorrow will announce a lawsuit aimed at blocking a constitutional amendment from the 2012 statewide ballot that would repeal the so-called Blaine Amendment, the Times/Herald has learned.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

PSC sides with utilities against proposed federal environmental rules
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The Public Service Commission is echoing the concerns of electric utilities in comments against a pair of proposed federal environmental rules.

WWII-era sunken ships leaking oil in Florida, elsewhere
By Kevin Wiatrowski
Tampa Tribune
Imagine last summer's Deepwater Horizon oil spill happening in slow motion, millions of gallons of oil fouling beaches and fishing grounds over decades instead of months.

LGBT

Obama backs bill to end DOMA
By MJ Lee
Politico
The White House on Tuesday publicly supported a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Obama administration has opposed.

Marriage law hearing to feature same-sex couples
By Kevin Freking
Associated Press
Sensing a shift in the public's thinking, proponents of same-sex marriage are hoping that a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday will mark the beginning of the end for a 15-year-old law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

EDUCATION

Low-performing schools given another year to shape up
Staff Report
Florida Tribune
Heeding the pleas of school superintendents and others, the State Board of Education agreed on Tuesday to give three school districts one more year to turn around several low performing schools before imposing far-reaching sanctions on them.

More than 150 'failing' schools must allow student transfers
By Leslie Postal and Lauren Roth
Orlando Sentinel
Florida students at more than 150 public schools can transfer to higher-performing campuses in their school district or anywhere in the state that will accept them, thanks to an expanded school-choice law adopted this year.

FSU's announcement is the latest in trend of public-private partnerships at universities
By Kim Wilmath
St. Petersburg Times
In these lean budgetary times, with public funding continually being hacked away, universities are turning more and more toward partnerships with private companies for a boost.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida shrinks again — agencies asked to cut spending next year by 10 percent
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Once known for its robust growth, Florida’s government is bracing for what has become a new annual tradition — the 10 percent budget cut exercise.

Stimulus cash lets Deltona, other cities help needy buy homes
By Ludmilla Lelis
Orlando Sentinel
The dilapidated house on Sweet Springs Street was abandoned and vacant, one of the scores of foreclosed properties, before city officials used federal-stimulus dollars to buy and fix it.

LaHood: SunRail will increase Central Florida’s economic competitiveness
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
A day after signing off on federal funds for Central Florida’s planned commuter rail project, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is singing the project’s praises on his personal blog.

With Mica on board, tolled 'Lexus lanes' on I-4 may get rolling
By Dan Tracy
Orlando Sentinel
Tolls could be coming to Interstate 4, at least for any lanes that might be added to the oft-congested spine of Central Florida's road network.

Reform school closing a dagger to rural Fla. town
By Brendan Farrington
Associated Press
The closing of a reform school in a small Florida Panhandle town is casting a sense of dread in the community.

Bipartisan 'Gang of Six' deficit effort gains momentum
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Leaders of a bipartisan "Gang of Six" senators said Tuesday that they've reached agreement on a major plan to cut the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the coming decade in what could be a bold entry into a debate on the deficit long bogged-down by bitter partisanship.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Florida abstinence education programs short on health specifics
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The Florida Department of Health shelled out almost $2 million in grants this year to organizations that teach abstinence-only education programs that place little emphasis on health-related information.

Miami group calls on feds to eliminate birth control co-pays
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Reproductive justice groups all over the country — including in Miami — are petitioning the feds to eliminate co-pays for birth control through the Affordable Care Act.

Anti-abortion activists take pictures and harass doctor at his Orlando home
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
What was supposed to be a week-long protest outside of clinics in Orlando has turned out to also include harassing doctors at their homes.

Consumer advocates urge feds to deny statewide Medicaid privatization
By Kate Bradshaw
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, or AHCA, has less than two weeks to apply for a waiver that would let it privatize health care for all low income Floridians.

Census 2010: Like U.S., Florida is going gray
By Ana Veciana-Suarez
Miami Herald
Road signs will be bigger and curbs wider.

The GOP’s New-Old Plan to Destroy Medicare & Social Security
The Progress Report
Think Progress
We are now frighteningly close to a default on our obligations with just two short weeks to go until Aug. 2.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

UCF student arrested in national FBI roundup of cyberattack suspects
By Amy Pavuk
Orlando Sentinel
The FBI arrested a University of Central Florida student on a computer-hacking charge Tuesday, the same day agents across the country arrested more than a dozen others for their suspected roles in cyberattacks reportedly linked to the group Anonymous.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Fla. justices uphold $28.3 million smoker verdict
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a $28.3 million verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the first of about 8,000 lawsuits that have been filed against cigarette companies in Florida by sick smokers and their families.