Daily Clips for October 12, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

In push for its new election law, Florida challenges U.S. Voting Rights Act
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Florida's top elections official is challenging federal oversight of voting laws in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination, including five Florida counties, as outdated and unconstitutional.

State revenues are $1.5 billion below budgeted
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature face a $1.5 billion revenue shortfall, state economists said Tuesday, complicating a budget picture in which health care and education costs are expected to rise as much as $1 billion.

Florida’s failed policies keep economy on ice
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
We all know: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Anthropologists take aim at Gov. Scott
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
The American Anthropological Association this afternoon released a letter is has sent to Gov. Rick Scott over comments he made Monday that Florida "doesn't need a lot more anthropologists in this state."

Placing blame on the right doorstep
Editorial
Miami Herald
They aren’t pretty and their political impact has been negligible, but it’s hard to deny that the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have a point.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida among states to skip paying dues to governors association
Staff Report
Florida Current
Sure, it still represents the interests of governors from all 50 states, but it no longer provides “technical assistance” to four states that have failed to pay their annual dues.

Nelson and Rubio split votes on China currency, Obama’s job bill
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
The Senate moments ago approved a bill to sanction China for keeping its currency undervalued.

Commissioner: Elected leaders failed to provide oversight of jobs agency
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Orange County Commissioner Fred Brummer says local elected officials have provided shoddy oversight of the region's jobs board and suggested the county consider breaking away from the embattled agency.

Rubio touts conservative meme blaming regulation for new debit card fees
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
In a letter to the editor printed in last week’s St. Petersburg Times, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., picked up a recent conservative meme that blames Bank of America’s new debit card fees on federal regulations.

Scott says pari-mutuels, potential new casinos should pay same rate
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott who thus far has been vague on his views on gaming expansion in Florida opened up a little bit on the subject on a Tallahassee radio show, saying he thought the South Florida pari-mutuels and any new casinos should have to pay the same amount in taxes.

POLITICAL RACES

Debate night: Romney taking less-conservative stances
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Presidential challenger Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of failing to lead in a time of economic peril but sounded less conservative than his Republican rivals in their debate Tuesday night, defending the 2008-2009 Wall Street bailout and declaring he could work with “good” Democrats.

Obama raises a glass of Guinness in Orlando, ‘To more jobs’
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
President Barack Obama, in Orlando for two fundraisers, took a sidetrip to an Irish bar to meet with unemployed construction workers.

LeMieux can try to run from Charlie Crist, but critics won’t let him
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
FreedomWorks For America, a PAC supporting Adam Hasner in Florida's U.S. Senate race, has produced palm cards linking George LeMieux to Charlie Crist and unpopular policies among Republicans, such as the stimulus.

Fla Democratic Party’s dollars dwindle after Republicans stop giving
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Democratic Party’s money woes worsened over the past three months, according to quarterly finance reports released Tuesday.

Nelson raises nearly $2 million in third quarter, has $7.5 million warchest
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson‘s campaign says it will report nearly $2 million in contributions for the third quarter when it files a Federal Election Commission report later this week.

Frankel’s $415,000 quarter tops Murphy in Democratic congressional money chase
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel‘s campaign says she raised $415,000 in the third quarter for her Democratic congressional bid for the seat of U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.

A few more South Florida campaign finance reports trickle in
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
We reported earlier on the fundraising haul for most of the South Florida legislative delegation.

C.W. Bill Young faces challenge from Libertarian
By Michael C. Bender and Katie Sanders
St. Petersburg Times
A Libertarian candidate says he'll challenge Rep. C.W. Bill Young and is taking a few shots at the long-serving Pinellas County Republican.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Bondi again leads Florida to challenge federal air pollution rule
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Florida has joined 24 other states and Guam in filing a court brief asking for a delay in what Attorney General Pam Bondi calls costly air pollution regulations.

Oil-drill ban petition organizers worry about its prospects
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Organizers behind the drive in Florida to put an offshore oil drilling ban on the 2012 ballot say they are not optimistic they will succeed.

Working to reverse damage to Gulf of Mexico
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Last year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the worst environmental disaster in this nation's history.

Gainesville moves forward on big biomass plant
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Biomass energy supporters on Tuesday heralded a ceremonial groundbreaking for an electric generating plant in Gainesville that once built could be the largest in the United States.

Turtle Trouble Ahead as Nest Numbers Rise
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Florida sea turtles are making a come back.

LGBT

Pinellas School Board blocks Boy Scout grant over gay discrimination
By Rebecca Catalanello
St. Petersburg Times
For more than a decade, Pinellas County School Board member Linda Lerner has objected to the same grant for a Boy Scouts of America-related program.

EDUCATION

Machen, others upset by talk of cutting funding for liberal arts
By Nathan Crabbe
Gainesville Sun
Gov. Rick Scott’s comment that the state doesn’t need more anthropology majors has raised eyebrows at a university with hundreds of them.

Reform universities, but don’t copy Texas
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
In U.S. News and World Report's latest rankings of the nation's best universities, none of the 11 public ones in Florida even made the top 50.

Jeb Bush, Jim Hunt tout online education at conference
Staff Report
Florida Current
Leaders from more than 100 state universities across the country gathered in Dallas last week at the Future of State Universities Conference.

Tough new FCAT scoring could pose roadblock for students
Staff Report
Florida Current
Passing many of Florida's crucial FCAT exams may soon be more difficult, and the percentage of students failing likely could zoom upward, under a proposed new scoring system being considered, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Seminole school closings: 3 more campuses may be shuttered
By Dave Weber
Orlando Sentinel
As many as three more Seminole County public schools may be closed next year to help cover a growing budget shortage, school officials said Tuesday.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Scott’s budget plans may send anthropologists back to the Stone Age
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday that cutting regulations, taxes and toughening requirements for those receiving unemployment benefits will again be part of his legislative wish-list next year — along with the new priority of pushing schools toward helping students gain job skills.

Workers’ comp rate hearing raises larger reform issue
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
A hearing Tuesday on whether to raise workers' compensation insurance rates in Florida also acted as a sounding board for airing complaints about the system.

About 131,000 unemployed Florida workers face cutoff of benefits in January
By Jeff Harrington
St. Petersburg Times
Nearly 2 million jobless Americans, including 131,000 in Florida, face a cutoff in unemployment payments at year's end unless Congress approves another round of extended benefits, according to a report released Tuesday.

Property insurer’s board reviewing sinkhole rates
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The board of directors for the state's largest property insurer is set to hear a presentation on increasing its rates.

Colombia trade agreement, beset by questions about anti-union violence, comes to the Senate
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance will hold hearings today to consider bills to implement three free trade agreements, including the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, mired in controversy since its proposal under the Bush administration.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Kaiser: Florida readies its own health insurance exchange, leaves out help for low-income people
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The state of Florida is currently preparing its own health insurance exchange program in place of the exchanges created by the federal health care reform law, but according to Kaiser Health News, Florida’s exchange program is missing subsidies for low-income people to afford health insurance and requirements that insurance providers cover certain “essential health benefits.”

Bill would make KidCare insurance available to state workers’ youngsters
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
More children could be eligible for the Florida KidCare program under a bill, SB 510, that was filed in the Senate on Tuesday.

16 States Fall Short On Health Plan Appeal Systems
By Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia don’t meet new requirements under the federal health law for consumers to appeal health plans’ decisions to a third party, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Inspectors Struggle to Keep Up With Imports
By Brad Racino
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Inside the giant warehouse, past the labyrinth of cubicles and corner offices, behind the security door marked “Authorized Personnel Only,” the smell isn’t all that bad today.

Lunch campaigns aim to improve students eating habits
By Michele Miller
St. Petersburg Times
We're midway through National School Lunch week, which runs through Friday, so there's still time for parents, grandparents and guardians to get in that lunch date with your child.

Kids left behind: Last in dental care
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
Picture yourself with a toothache. Then picture yourself trying to study or trying to concentrate at work.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

State losing money on drug testing of welfare recipients but applications drop
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times
The New York Times reports today on the trend to drug test welfare recipients, and notes that since July, 7,030 passed, 32 failed and 1,597 did not provide results, according to the state records.

School districts told to monitor enrollment of Alabama immigrant students
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The impact of Alabama’s new immigration law, which requires K-12 schools to check the immigration status of their students, could be felt in several states, including Florida.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Oba Chandler Death Warrant
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
Governor Rick Scott has signed a black bordered death warrant for convicted killer Oba Chandler.