Daily Clips for August 2, 2011

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Florida’s Top Political Tweeters for August
By Peter Schorsch
St. Petersblog 2.0
Below is SaintPetersblog.com‘s ranking of Florida’s Top Political Tweeters for August…The most influential Florida political organization on Twitter is Progress Florida.

FEATURED STORIES

Scott to do 'workdays' a la Bob Graham
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott will be punching a time clock at a Tampa doughnut shop Wednesday, as he tries to massage his image and gain favor with a leery public.

Florida submits Medicaid plan based on managed care to feds for approval
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida officials sent a wide-ranging application Monday to the federal government for steering almost 3 million Medicaid patients into managed care, a major shift that has sparked heavy lobbying from critics who demand the Obama administration deny the move.

State approves new HMO contracts that call for big changes for state workers
By Gary Fineout
Florida Current
Florida contends that it will save $400 million over the next two years by making substantial changes to the health care benefits it offers thousands of state employees.

Florida utilities pressed for answers on escalating costs, time lines for new nuclear power plants
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
For the past two years, customers of Florida's largest electric companies have been paying to build new nuclear power plants that have an escalating price tag and no guarantee of completion.

Debt deal comes down to Washington's favorite solution: a committee
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Related: Florida mixed bag as U.S. House approves debt-ceiling deal
Appoint a bipartisan, open-minded group of lawmakers to come up with a long-term plan to reduce the nation's budget deficit.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Scott says he will roll out legislative agenda in September
By Gary Fineout
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott may have just gotten through his first-ever legislative session but he is already getting geared up for his next one.

Scott meets with media over coffee and doughnuts
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott, whose relationship with the mainstream media has been notoriously strained at times, invited the capitol press corps over for an hour-long chat about everything from the federal debt ceiling to doughnut-making.

Rick Scott administration circumvents Justice Department in voting law changes
By Robert Lorei
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
We’ll talk first about a decision by the Scott administration to go around the US Justice Department in attempting to implement new voter laws here in Florida.

Rick Scott media strategy borrows from Bob Graham playbook
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, whose poll standings have been among the worst of any Florida governor in modern times, is taking a page or two from the political playbook of one of the state's most popular chief executives — Democrat Bob Graham.

Florida delegation votes to pass debt deal in House, 18-7
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
Florida lawmakers grudgingly joined with their colleagues in the U.S. House on Monday in passing 269-161 a deal that prevents the federal government from defaulting on its debts — despite misgivings from even supporters of the last-minute compromise.

Florida lawmakers share in the joy of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' return to the House
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Already awash in emotion in the debt-ceiling debate, the U.S. House burst into cheers this evening when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords appeared to cast her vote in favor of the compromise bill.

Follow Fair Districts rules, speed release of redistricting maps.
Editorial
Florida Today
At last week's public hearing in Viera on redrawing political districts, state lawmakers heard what they've been hearing at similar meetings across the state.

POLITICAL RACES

Nancy Argenziano to run for Congress as a Democrat
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Saying the Republican Party has left her and is now owned by ideologues, former GOP state Sen. Nancy Argenziano says she will run for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat.

Tea party won’t take down Allen West, but Democrats might
By Rachel Weiner
Washington Post
Talk of a tea party challenge to Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is overblown. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be in the House come 2013.

Scott believes Perry will get into GOP race soon
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Florida Gov. Rick Scott says he believes Texas Gov. Rick Perry will soon be joining the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mitt Romney draws $12.2 million from PAC
By Jonathan Martin and Kenneth P. Vogel
Politico
A new Super PAC created to support Mitt Romney raised $12.2 million in the first half of the year entirely from high-dollar contributors and spent just over $22,000, according to a report to be filed with the FEC Sunday.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Former DCA chief gets go-ahead to testify against Scott administration
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Former Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham has been cleared by the Florida Commission on Ethics to testify in a growth management legal challenge but a hearing scheduled for this week has been delayed.

Florida town files lawsuit to block "misleading" growth management law
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill that substantially reduced the state's oversight in growth management was passed with a title that "cloaked" the true intent of the legislation, according to a legal challenge filed Monday.

Tensions brewing about possibility of allowing hunting on some public lands
By Atecia Robinson
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
There’s tension brewing about the possibility of allowing hunting on some public land.

LGBT

Gay marriage: awkward issue for some GOP hopefuls
By David Crary
Associated Press
Same-sex marriage might seem like a straightforward issue: You're for it or against it.

Miami Beach pays gay man $75,000 to settle false-arrest case; also orders cops not to harass same-sex couples
By Steve rothaus and David Smiley
Miami Herald
The city of Miami Beach on Monday paid a $75,000 settlement to a gay tourist who said he was roughed up, insulted and falsely arrested by two police officers near Flamingo Park in 2009.

EDUCATION

Education summit sets out to tackle big issues
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
St. Petersburg Times
The time has come for Florida's education leaders to have a frank talk about money, priorities and public schools.

Graduate students will pay more for loans under debt deal
By Douglas Hanks and Michael Vasquez
Miami Herald
Graduate students wound up on the “Loser” list from Washington’s debt deal.

Charter schools score big on maintenance funding
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott and the state Legislature do an outstanding job of talking a good game about improving education in Florida.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Thousands of state workers will have to find new insurance
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Thousands of state employees covered by health-maintenance organizations will have to change their insurance next year under new contracts that state officials said Monday will save Florida taxpayers $400 million over the next two years.

Unemployment Goes Online
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Beginning today, jobless Floridians applying for unemployment benefits must do it online.

The Not-So-Grand Bargain
By Travis Waldron
Think Progress
Democrats and Republicans finally agreed on a deal to raise the debt limit Sunday, less than 48 hours before the nation was set to hit its borrowing limit.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Feds examining $1 billion in additional Medicaid payments
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
While Florida seeks approval of a sweeping overhaul of the $22 billion Medicaid program there are signs that the state's existing Medicaid reform program may be in for some major changes.

Florida medical leaders at odds with some religious groups over new women's preventative health rules
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
Private health insurance plans will have to cover birth control, well-woman visits, breast-feeding support and domestic violence counseling next year under a new women's preventive health rule announced by the Obama administration today.

Scott ceremonially signs four anti-abortion bills at governor’s mansion
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Alongside a group of social conservatives and anti-reproductive rights advocates at the governor’s mansion, Gov. Rick Scott signed four bills aimed at discouraging women from having abortions.

Bondi: Pill mill crackdown could hike crime
By Lyda Longa and Eileen Zaffiro-Kean
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi stopped by the Florida Sheriffs Association convention Monday, with Bondi warning of problems likely to come from Florida's crackdown on pill mills.

Obama administration revises policy, will not limit AIDS drug emergency funding
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
According to an HIV/AIDS patient advocacy group, the Obama administration announced Monday its decision to not limit the level of emergency funding Florida can receive for its AIDS Drug Assistance Program to less than what it received last year.

Little or no progress on medical mistakes in Florida
By Sally Kestin and Bob LaMendola
South Florida Sun Sentinel
"First do no harm" is a tenet every doctor promises to uphold, yet for many patients, the hands they trust to heal end up causing pain, suffering and even death.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Florida’s evolving immigration politics
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
Over the weekend, the transnational center-left pollster Stanley B. Greenberg published an op-ed in The New York Times explaining what Democrats can do to regain their mojo.

State lawmakers: Cities can’t ban guns in parks, town halls
By Diana Moskovitz
Miami Herald
Do handguns belong in South Florida’s parks and recreation centers and city halls?

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Atwater reverses, issues burial check to family of youth who died in state custody
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
After his staff blocked the payment last week, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater signed off Monday on a $5,000 check to help cover the costs of a teen who died while in state custody earlier this month and blamed the Department of Juvenile Justice for the delay.

Judge hearing challenge to Fla. execution drug
By Curt Anderson
Associated Press
A judge in Miami will hear a challenge to the state's planned use of a new execution drug.

The death penalty: A dead end in Florida
By Mike Thomas
Orlando Sentinel
Executing inmates is getting harder, more expensive and a lot loonier in Florida.