FEATURED STORIES
Herman Cain wins Florida straw poll in stunning victory; Rick Perry in deep trouble
By Marc Caputo, Alex Leary and Michael C. Bender
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Staff Writers
Related: Supporter of Gov. Perry says no worries
Related: 10 things we learned at Presidency 5 about the Republican presidential candidates
>From the bottom of the polls to the top of the pack, businessman Herman Cain won a surprise victory at the Republican Party of Florida’s nationally watched presidential straw poll Saturday in a sign that frontrunner Rick Perry is in deep trouble.
Florida Issues Ignored in GOP Debate
By Brandon Larrabee
News Service of Florida
Florida issues were the sideshow Thursday as the Republican presidential candidates scuffled in Central Florida in the opening act of this weekend’s Presidency 5 event.
Scott attorney acknowledges governor's emails were deleted
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott's office has admitted that email to and from the governor contained on his iPad was "accidentally" deleted — a potential violation of the law, according to the First Amendment Foundation.
All quiet on the redistricting front – for now
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Florida lawmakers have been wrangling for months over accusations of back-room dealings in the once-a-decade process of re-drawing legislative and congressional districts.
Jobs proposal could pump millions into Florida schools
By Laura Isensee and Laura Figueroa
Miami Herald
Right before school started, the air-conditioning unit was broken in Sandra Raines’ fourth-grade classroom, a portable building at G.K.E. Sabal Palm Elementary in North Miami Beach.
Small businesses can get tax incentives for offering health insurance to employees
By Janelle Irwin
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
It may be less expensive for small businesses to offer health insurance to their employees because of the Affordable Care Act.
EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Jim Morin
Miami Herald
FLORIDA POLITICS
Gov. Rick Scott delivers forceful speech at Presidency 5
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott said Saturday that Florida's 2012 presidential primary will be more important than any other early contest, including Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.
An offer legislators can’t refuse — or can they?
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
Gov. Rick Scott’s crusade to drug-test cash welfare applicants is turning out to be another thick-headed scheme that’s backfiring on Florida taxpayers.
Groups rev up to fight gambling expansion in Florida
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Battle lines are being drawn over a big-money issue likely to dominate Tallahassee in the coming months: plans to bring Vegas-style casino resorts to Florida.
Jacksonville Republican Lenny Curry to head state party
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
Lenny Curry, chairman of the Republican Party of Duval County, was elected chairman of the statewide party by a unanimous vote Friday evening.
An election-law overreach
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
It was bad enough the Republican-controlled Legislature, which purports to be against unnecessary regulation, tied up state election laws with red tape last session.
Florida can do without a lieutenant governor
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
The last thing the governor of the nation's fourth-largest state needs to be worrying about is whether the staff of his lieutenant governor is secretly recording each other's embarrassing comments.
POLITICAL RACES
Hasner: conservative favorite in major Senate straw poll
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Though down in the polls, Republican Senate candidate Adam Hasner was Friday’s straw poll winner — by just a few percentage points — at the Conservative Public Action Conference.
Obama campaign discounts low approval rating in Florida, says base mobilizing
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
With a recent Quinnipiac University poll showing President Obama now facing the lowest approval rating of his presidency in Florida, his campaign defended its position in the crucial battleground state Friday.
Southern Bellwether: Florida’s Crucial 2012 Contest Takes Shape
By Tim Padgett
Time Magazine
An election year is nigh, so it’s time once again for Florida to remind us that it’s more than just a dysfunctional retiree repository.
Rick Perry's debate performance costs him some support
By Alex Leary, Michael C. Bender and Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Staff Writers
Related: Breaking down the GOP presidential debate
A series of wobbly debates and heightened scrutiny of Rick Perry's record have conservatives second-guessing the Republican front-runner heading into today's high-stakes Florida straw poll.
For Republican candidates, politics trump science
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Related: ‘Also-rans’ have plenty of reasons to keep running
Not often is Dan Brown, however clever, associated with Charles Darwin.
Primary committee plays chicken and decides to wait a week to set a date
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
Scheduling Florida's presidential preference primary became a game of chicken Friday as the committee charged with setting the date decided to wait a week to make a decision, giving it time to see what other states have done.
Ad campaigns for 2012 target influential Latino vote
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Barack Obama won 57 percent of the Latino vote in Florida in 2008, but a recent Gallup poll said only 48 percent believe he should be re-elected.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
BP seeks to restart drilling in gulf
Wire Report
St. Petersburg Times
Related editorial: Government must continue to build on oil drilling safety efforts
BP is asking regulators to approve new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since its Macondo well blew out last year, causing the nation's worst oil spill.
LSU confirms oil from BP well; feds collect samples
By Ben Raines
Mobile Press-Register
While the source of the oil bubbling up around the Deepwater Horizon site remains a mystery, a Louisiana State University scientist says further chemical analysis has confirmed that the oil originated in BP’s well, and not from other nearby sources, as federal officials have suggested.
Cuba Set to Begin Offshore Drilling: Is Florida In Eco-Straits?
By Tim Padgett
Time Magazine
Like the tourism-dependent state of Florida, the tourism-dependent nation of Cuba 90 miles away can't afford to foul its picturesque coastline with an oil spill.
Cut of key monitoring program imperils Everglades restoration, experts warn
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
The agencies in charge of restoring the Everglades are set to gut a science program critical to determining whether work they’re doing is helping or hurting plants and animals that live there — from algae that anchors the bottom of the food chain to alligators that feast at its top.
Bondi joins lawsuit challenging EPA rule on interstate air pollution
By Katie Sanders
Miami Herald
Attorney General Pam Bondi joined a Nebraska lawsuit Friday that challenges an Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring 27 states to reduce power plant emissions that lead to air pollution in other states.
Gulf Shrimpers Snagging Imperiled Sea Turtles
By Les Coleman
Public News Service Florida
According to federal documents, shrimp boat nets in the Gulf of Mexico are still scooping up endangered sea turtles along with their catch, according to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).
Protect priceless public lands
Editorial
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Southwest Florida Water Management District's assessment of its "surplus lands" could turn out to be an exercise in good management and public stewardship.
LGBT
'After much soul-searching,' Ros-Lehtinen now supports repealing 1996 Defense of Marriage Act
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
Eight years ago, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, said she was slowly becoming a gay-rights advocate but wasn't ready to accept same-sex married couples.
Gay soldier booed during GOP debate; Santorum assails repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell'
Associated Press
Miami Herald
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the end of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that barred gays and lesbians from serving openly is a social experiment pushed by Democrats.
EDUCATION
New federal standards could ease schools' burden under No Child Left Behind
By Jason Schultz
Palm Beach Post
President Obama on Friday offered school districts across the country a pardon from No Child Left Behind requirements, but reminded officials that the new freedom is not free.
In Palm Beach County, some classes without size limits are packed
By Marc Freeman
South Florida Sun Sentinel
In his 40th and final year as a teacher, Richard Goldsmith says he's never seen so many pupils packed into one classroom.
Fewer teachers in Broward lead to larger class sizes
By Laura Figueroa
Miami Herald
There are not enough textbooks to go around in Myrna Greenberg’s ninth-grade reading class. She would like to use the electronic Smart Board hanging from her Plantation High School classroom, but it’s not fitted with the proper plug-ins to make it run. She has 37 students in one class - 12 over the state-mandated limit.
Scott's questions put university tenure under scrutiny
By Lindsay Peterson
Tampa Tribune
J. Lynn McBrien worked for five years to prove she was worthy of a position as professor at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.
Florida wants more students to major in math, science
By Lilly Rockwell
News Service Of Florida
Florida’s colleges and universities are facing mounting pressure to graduate more students with science and math degrees as part of a statewide effort to more closely align workforce demands with college degrees and keep Florida competitive with other states.
Texas-style reform a bad fit for Florida's universities
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott wants to bring Texas-style reform to the state university system by eliminating faculty tenure and changing the way college professors are paid. It's an idea that's best left in the Lone Star State.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Florida Near the Top in Mass Layoffs
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
With one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and the undisputed title of “foreclosure capital of the United States,” it seems the only consolation for Floridians these days is knowing that someone else is struggling as much as we are.
Will clearing foreclosure logjam revive Florida's economy?
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
With hundreds of thousands of foreclosure cases clogging Florida's courts and more defaulted loans in the pipeline, Moody's economists now predict South Florida home prices won't hit bottom until late 2012 or early 2013.
Local food pantries continue to struggle in depressed economy
By Kari C. Barlow
Northwest Florida Daily News
As incomes drop and poverty increases across Florida, food pantries along the Emerald Coast are struggling to keep pace.
Effort to cut courts out of foreclosure process could be costly to all Floridians
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
On its face, it certainly sounds attractive: Speed up Florida's foreclosure process to help the state move past the crisis to a healthier economy.
Federal Funding For State: Florida Could Use Stimulus
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
Former state Sen. Rudy Garcia may have to expand his government-economics discussion group.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Florida awarded almost $5 million in latest round of home visiting grants
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today that Florida was awarded $4.9 million in its latest round of Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting grant money.
Report: One in Five Floridians Uninsured
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
The U.S. Census Bureau released a report last week on the level of health insurance coverage in 2010. And things aren’t looking sunny for the Sunshine State.
Study: High uninsured rates affect health care of those with insurance
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A new study shows that a community that has a high rate of uninsured members affects the health care access and quality of those who actually have insurance.
Report: Assisted listing facilities in Florida need stricter oversight
By Britt Kennerly
Florida Today
The shutdown of Florida's worst assisted living facilities and tougher oversight of thousands of the centers statewide are among massive changes called for in a just-released legislative study.
Experts split on insurance hassles
By Brittany Alana Davis
Health News Florida
When Jack Gilliam walked into the emergency room at Florida Hospital, he had a tight chest, neck and jawline and a warning from his doctors that he would probably need a heart catheterization, an invasive chest X-ray that tests blood flow.
Scott can't back up claim
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Two weeks ago, Gov. Scott called the Affordable Care Act - what he disparages as "Obamacare" – "the biggest job-killer in our state."
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Orlando father asking federal judge today to block drug testing for Florida welfare applicants
By Rene Stutzman
Orlando Sentinel
A 35-year-old Orlando father is expected to be in federal court this morning, challenging a new state law that requires welfare applicants to undergo drug testing.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
Why does the South execute more people?By Chris Kromm
Facing South
In the wake of the high-profile but ultimately unsuccessful effort to save Georgia's Troy Davis from execution, media outlets are buzzing that the Davis case has sparked a new debate about capital punishment.
We ought to be sure before taking a life with death penalty
By Darryl E. Owens
Orlando Sentinel
On Thursday, Robert Wilcoxson and Kenneth Kagonyera walked out of a North Carolina jail as free men.
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